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Driver arrested after bus crashes into convenience store in Puli

A bus crashed into a convenience store in Nantou County Monday morning after the driver, who was later found to be drunk, failed to engage the handbrake when parking, according to local police.

The 56-year-old driver, surnamed Shih (?), parked the bus on Heping East Road in Puli Township to buy breakfast but forgot to engage the handbrake. As a result, the vehicle slid backwards and crashed through the glass storefront of a Family Mart. Fortunately no customers or clerks in the store were injured, Nantou County Police Bureau said.

Three elderly passengers on the bus reportedly suffered from shock but were also uninjured. Police arrived on the scene and conducted a sobriety test which indicated the driver was over the legal limit and driving under the influence, police added.

During an interrogation, Shih admitted to drinking antler wine on Sunday evening, police said, adding that he has been handed over to Nantou District Prosecutors Office for further investigation and is likely to be charged with offenses against public safety.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

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New Guatemala envoy invites President Tsai to visit for planned summit

The new Guatemalan Ambassador to Taiwan Oscar Adolfo Padilla Lam on Monday invited President Tsai Ing-wen (???) to co-host a planned summit in the Central American country of states that maintain diplomatic relations with Taipei.

Padilla said that as a staunch supporter of Taiwan, Guatemala had repeatedly expressed its support for the country in bilateral and multilateral forums.

According to Padilla, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei voiced support for Taiwan at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

As a friend of Taiwan, Guatemala is planning a summit in March 2023 of countries with which Taiwan has diplomatic relations, Padilla said.

The summit will serve as a platform for these allies of Taiwan to conduct closer exchanges among one another and to again show their joint commitment to Taiwan, he said.

Padilla said the summit would be hosted by President Giammattei Padilla, adding that Guatemala’s government had invited Tsai to co-host.

Guatemala’s government has yet to release details of the planned summit, and it is not immediately clear if Tsai will act as co-host.

Guatemala is one of a total of 14 states that have diplomatic relations with Republic of China, the de jure name for Taiwan.

The ambassador made the remarks Monday morning as he presented his credentials to Tsai during a ceremony at the Presidential Office.

Padilla had already presented a copy of his credentials to Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (???) on Nov. 11.

In her Monday address, Tsai welcome Padilla, describing him as an old friend of Taiwan and noting that he had first visited the island in 1992.

Tsai added that she expected Padilla’s appointment to facilitate even closer bilateral relations on all fronts.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Padilla previously served as Guatemala’s deputy foreign minister, as well as the country’s consul general in Vancouver, Canada, and the U.S. state of Arizona.

The ambassador has visited Taiwan four times in the past, including in 1996, when he took part in a MOFA-sponsored training program.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

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ELECTIONS 2022/Incumbent KMT Chiayi mayor wins reelection in delayed vote

Incumbent Chiayi Mayor Huang Min-hui (???) of the Kuomintang (KMT) has won reelection Sunday based on initial vote counts that showed her leading her main challenger Lee Chun-yi (???) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) by a sizable margin.

Huang, 63, called her victory at 5:15 p.m., just 75 minutes after the polls closed.

Though votes were still being counted, initial results reported by the Central Election Commission showed Huang with a comfortable lead among the five candidates in the race with about 63.5 percent of the vote, compared to 35 percent for Lee, who represented the city as a lawmaker from 2012 to 2020.

Huang was a KMT legislator representing Chiayi City from 1999 to 2005. She has also served as KMT vice chairperson since October 2021 after previously holding the position from 2008 to 2016.

She had previously served as Chiayi mayor for two terms from 2005 to 2014 and won back the seat in November 2018.

The mayoral election for Chiayi was originally set to take place as part of the nationwide elections to choose city mayors, county magistrates, and city and county councilors on Nov. 26.

The vote for Chiayi mayor, however, was postponed to Sunday by the Central Election Commission (CEC) after the death of one of the mayoral candidates, independent Huang Shao-tsung (???), in November.

Huang died of a heart attack on Nov. 2, and the CEC suspended the race for mayor based on Article 30 of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act, dubbed the “anti-assassination clause.”

It requires the CEC to terminate a mayoral or county magistrate election and restart the process if a candidate dies at least one day before election day.

The rescheduling of the Chiayi mayoral race, however, will not affect the newly elected mayor’s inauguration date of Dec. 25.

Huang’s victory meant the KMT won control of 14 of Taiwan’s 22 cities and counties, including four of Taiwan’s six biggest metropolitan areas where nearly 70 percent of Taiwan’s people live.

The DPP, which controls the central government, won only five cities and counties, losing their hold on Taoyuan, Keelung and Hsinchu cities while picking up the offshore Penghu County, while the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) took Hsinchu City and independents took Miaoli and Kinmen counties.

Following the election setback, President Tsai Ing-wen (???) announced she would step down as chairperson of the DPP, potentially creating uncertainty for the party 14 months ahead of Taiwan’s next presidential election.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

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CORONAVIRUS/Taiwan reports 15,123 new COVID-19 cases, 30 deaths

Taiwan on Sunday reported 15,123 new COVID-19 infections and 30 deaths from the disease, according to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).

The new cases represented a 7.1-percent increase from the same day a week earlier, CECC data showed.

On a week-by-week basis, the 106,889 cases recorded from Dec. 11 to Dec. 17 were up by 6.93 percent from the number reported from Dec. 4 to Dec. 10, the data showed.

Meanwhile, the 219 COVID-19 deaths from Dec. 11 to Dec. 17 were a 14.06-percent increase over the total recorded during the previous seven-day period, according to the CECC.

The deceased reported on Sunday ranged in age from their 40s to their 90s. All but three had underlying health conditions, while 19 of them were unvaccinated against COVID-19, the CECC said.

Of the 14,005 deaths from locally transmitted COVID-19 infections in Taiwan this year, 91 percent were people with chronic illnesses or other conditions, 91 percent were aged 60 or above, and 66 percent had not received three shots of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to CECC data as of Dec. 16.

Regional breakdown

Regionally, New Taipei recorded the highest number of new cases, with 2,938, followed by Taichung with 1,868 and Taoyuan with 1,774.

Kaohsiung reported 1,656 new cases, Taipei 1,625, Tainan 1,153, Changhua 671, Hsinchu County 527, Hsinchu City 492, Pingtung 333, Miaoli 327 and Yunlin 306.

Chiayi County had 229 cases, Yilan 222, Keelung 211, Nantou 206, Hualien 161, Chiayi City 139, Taitung 83, Kinmen 82 and Penghu 31, the CECC said.

To date, Taiwan has recorded 8,578,053 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in early 2020, including 38,854 classified as imported.

With the 30 deaths reported on Sunday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 fatalities in the country rose to 14,890.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

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Rebuilt Nanfang’ao Bridge opens with president on hand

The rebuilt Nanfang’ao Bridge in Yilan County opened to traffic on Sunday, and President Tsai Ing-wen (???) said at a ceremony prior to the bridge’s launch that she hoped it would create opportunities for the revival of the fishing port town.

The bridge was rebuilt after it collapsed on Oct. 1, 2019, killing six migrant workers from the Philippines and Indonesia who were on fishing boats that the falling structure crushed.

Nine other Philippine and Indonesian migrant workers, one oil tank driver who was driving on the bridge when it collapsed, and three rescue personnel were injured in the incident.

Noting that the bridge’s collapse caused significant casualties and had a major impact on the local economy, tourism, and traffic, Tsai thanked Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (???) Cabinet for its contributions to rebuilding efforts.

Tsai said there were numerous challenges in rebuilding the bridge, including dismantling the old bridge, designing the new one, and overcoming the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the progress in construction.

The bridge’s opening also had to be pushed back by three months from Sept. 18 to Dec. 18 because of a problem with the pouring of concrete on May 27, Transportation Minister Wang Kwo-tsai (???) said on July 11.

Now that the bridge has opened to traffic, Tsai said it would help boost the local economy and tourism activity while also improving the port’s traffic.

She also said its unique mackerel shape will make it an important landmark in the community that lets fishermen know they have arrived home when they return to Nanfang’ao.

At the same ceremony, Su said the government has undertaken safety checks of 26,000 bridges around Taiwan, with 101 determined to be in need of repair or reinforcement.

So far, 100 of the bridges have been repaired or reinforced, with the work on the other one slated to be completed in April 2023.

Construction of the NT$860 million, 796.53-meter-long Nanfang’ao Bridge started on July 16, 2020.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

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BioNTech to work with Terry Gou’s foundation on cancer immunotherapies

The YongLin Healthcare Foundation will partner with BioNTech to develop mRNA-based cancer immunotherapies, according to Terry Gou (???), founder of the foundation and manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.

In a post on his Facebook page Friday night, Gou said BioNTech is also planning to set up a clinical trial hub in Taiwan for mRNA-based cancer immunotherapies as part of its Asia-Pacific expansion.

Echoing Gou, the German biotech firm, known for its widely used mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, said in a separate statement that it will collaborate with the YongLin Healthcare Foundation after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Retain Biotech Corp.

Retain Biotech, a Taiwan-based company sponsored by the foundation, is engaged in precision and genomic medicine and cell therapy for treating cancers, BioNTech said.

Gou said BioNTech has set up an office in Taiwan and launched its first project — BNT113 — aimed at doing an initial assessment of its cancer product candidate BNT113, which is targeted at treating head and neck cancers.

Taiwan is expected to participate in BioNTech’s mRNA-based cancer immunotherapy development, Gou said, while the German company said BNT113 is expected to be the first among several novel cancer immunotherapies that it anticipates assessing in the region.

Under the MOU, Retain is expected to support the clinical evaluation of BNT113 in a randomized Phase 2 clinical trial across the region, according to the German company.

“BioNTech’s mRNA technology has not only saved the world from the COVID-19 pandemic but also raised hopes that the technology will help medical circles take a leap in cancer treatment,” Gou said.

“That has been the original intention of BioNTech founder and CEO Ugur Sabin, and it is the first time for him to think his wish to beat cancer will come true.”

BioNTech executives came to Taiwan in January at Gou’s invitation to visit the National Taiwan University Cancer Center and get a clearer picture of Taiwan’s cancer treatment environment, its medical equipment and achievements in the biotech field.

While in Taiwan, the executives took stock of Taiwan’s needs and worked on mapping out a blueprint for treating cancer in Taiwan in the future, Gou said.

In July, Gou led a delegation to the headquarters of BioNTech in Germany to brief Sabin on Taiwan’s plans to work with the company on head and neck cancer, breast cancer and leukemia.

In his Facebook post Friday, Gou praised the partnership, saying Taiwan could not afford to be left behind in the battle against cancer.

Commenting on the partnership with Retain, Sean Marett, chief business and chief commercial officer of BioNTech, said his company’s goal was to accelerate the development of innovative therapies to help address cancers which have been highly prevalent in the region.

BioNTech said it planned to evaluate BNT113 in the broader Asia-Pacific region starting with clinical trial sites in Taiwan and the state of Victoria in Australia.

It will also assess with Retain the extension of clinical activities to Japan, South Korea, Singapore and other East Asian economies for other cancer-related therapies, which currently encompasses 18 product candidates in 23 ongoing clinical trials.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

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Taiwan Cement buys 60% stake in Portuguese EV fast charging provider

Taiwan Cement Co., which has diversified into the green energy business to broaden its product portfolio, has acquired a 60 percent stake in Kilometer Low Cost S.A. (KLC), the largest electric vehicle fast charging services provider in Portugal.

In a statement, Taiwan Cement said its sub-subsidiary, Atlante Co., spent 4.5 million euros (US$4.78 million), or about NT$147 million, to buy the KLC stake, and expected to acquire the remaining 40 percent stake by the end of 2024.

In the statement, Atlante CEO Stefano Terranova said the acquisition of KLC would serve as a springboard for the company to expand in Portugal and Spain by accelerating the pace at which it builds EV charging stations.

According to Taiwan Cement, Altante will use the deal to take the lead over its peers in the fast charging business in the Ibérian Peninsula and move closer to becoming the largest fast charging service provider in southern Europe.

Atlante will bring technologies and financial support to KLC and help it strengthen its resource management, digital platform and brand recognition, while getting access to a professional team and strategic partners to extend its reach in Portugal, Taiwan Cement said.

In April, Atlante opened subsidiaries in France and Spain as part of its efforts to expand in the European market, Taiwan Cement said.

Five months later in September, Altante secured a grant of about NT$710 million from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), a EU funding instrument for strategic investment in transport, energy and digital infrastructure, to expand its network in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.

It has set a goal of installing 5,000 fast and ultra-fast EV charging points in the four countries by 2025, and more than 35,000 by 2030, Taiwan Cement said.

Atlante is a subsidiary of European energy storage company NHOA, formerly known as Engie EPS, in which Taiwan Cement acquired a 60.48 percent stake for 132 million euros in 2021.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

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Overhaul of F-5 jet ejection seats to be completed by yearend: Source

The Air Force will finish installing new ejection seats on all of its F-5 fighter jets by the end of this year and hopefully put an end to a long-standing safety issue that has killed at least two pilots, a source in the military said on Saturday.

The Ministry of National Defense (MND) in 2021 budgeted NT$746.5 million (US$24.25 million) to install 70 Mk16 ejection seats manufactured by Martin-Baker Aircraft Co. on the nation’s fleet of 70 F-5 fighter jets.

This came after two fatal accidents in 2020 and 2021 involving F-5E jets.

On Oct. 30, 2020, Air Force Captain Chu Kuan-meng (???), 29, ejected from an F-5E during a drill after the jet’s engine malfunctioned. He was later found with no vital signs. A post-mortem found noticeable signs of trauma in his head and that he died of a cerebral hemorrhage-induced neurogenic shock.

In the 2021 accident, Air Force Lieutenant Luo Shang-hua (???), 26, died after his F-5E jet sideswiped that piloted by Captain Pan Ying-chun (???), 28, on March 22. Luo’s body was found four weeks after the accident.

The post-mortem on Luo determined he died of the same cause as Chu, while forensic examiners were unable to determine Pan’s cause of death at the time his body was found.

The MND later confirmed that a mechanical fault was detected in Chu’s and Luo’s ejection seats.

The two accidents happened less than six months apart from each other, sparking grave concern among lawmakers and members of the public, which prompted the MND to allocate funds for the procurement of the new ejection seats in 2021.

The Air Force installed the first new ejection seat in December last year, and as of the end of June this year had finished installing 24 seats, a source with knowledge of the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, told CNA.

All 70 new ejection seats will be installed by the end of 2022, the source said.

Following a compatibility test, the Air Force has confirmed that the new seats are compatible with the domestically produced T-BE5A “Brave Eagle” advanced jet trainers and will be transferred to the trainers, which are scheduled to replace the F-5 jets in 2024, the source said.

The decades-old F-5 jets are mostly used for training purposes nowadays, though they could be called into action during wartime, according to another unnamed source in the Air Force.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel

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The Italian Embassy in Washington celebrates the Italian National Space Day

Mariangela Zappia, Italian Ambassador to the US, speaks at the Italian National Space Day

Mariangela Zappia, Italian Ambassador to the US, speaks at the Italian National Space Day on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022, at the Embassy of Italy in Washington DC. The day was inaugurated by the Italian government as an occasion to raise awareness of the Italian contributions to global space.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C., hosted the “Italian National Space Day” on Thursday 15 December. The celebration was launched in 2020 by the Italian government, to commemorate the launch in 1964 of the San Marco I satellite program, which made Italy the third country in the world with a presence in space, after the United States and the Soviet Union. The event, organized in collaboration with ICE, Asi (Italian Space Agency) U.S. Space Foundation, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and George Washington University, saw the participation of the main Italian and US leaders in the space sector.

“It’s a special day for us. We want to underline the Italian expertise, experience and vision in a rapidly growing sector and draw attention to the main economic, commercial and social benefits that space can offer, both nationally and internationally,” said the ambassador of Italy to the United States, Mariangela Zappia, in her address. The ambassador also recalled that Italy was “the first major European country to sign a bilateral agreement with NASA, and the first to join the Artemis agreements.”

“Italy has a long history in science, exploration and space,” said Chirag Parikh, Deputy Assistant to the President and Executive Secretary of the National Space Council, in his remarks, underlining that for the United States “Italy continues to be an indispensable partner in space cooperation in the civil, security and commercial sectors.”

“Italy and the United States have a very rich history of collaboration. A key example is the Italian involvement in the International Space Station. It can probably be said that there would be no International Space Station without Italian participation. Research and leadership they displayed was incredible in every aspect of the technology that we’ve been able to observe on Earth, especially here in the United States,” said Kelli Kedis Ogborn, VP of Space Commerce and Entrepreneurship at the Space Foundation, a nonprofit founded in 1983, to offer information, educational programs, and collaborations in space exploration and the space-to-Earth industry that characterize the global space ecosystem.

The Italian National Space Day was attended by representatives of many American companies, including Blue Origin, SpaceX, Axiom Space, AWS, Sierra Space, Boeing, Virgin Orbit, L3 Harris, Virgin Galactic, Firefly, NASA and Rocketjet Aerodyne. The Italian aerospace industry and institutions were represented by Leonardo and its subsidiaries, Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space, Avio, Argotec, Altec, RME, D-Orbit, T4i, Breton, Picosats, Space Factory, Astra Space, BluElectronic, AEREA , CEI Piedmont (Agency for Investment, Tourism and Export), Emilia-Romagna (Art-ER Attractiveness Research Territory Emilia-Romagna), CIRA (Italian Aerospace Research Center), Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and Intesa SanPaolo.

“For Italy, the United States is one of the main partners and we are very interested in their market and I know that the United States is also looking at us, because we have a historical capacity in space. I think that in the future we will be able to collaborate, with great opportunities in the commercial market, which is a rapidly growing market for us, and the United States is a target for us,” said Cristina Sgubin, Secretary General and General Counsel of Telespazio-Leonardo.

For more information:

LaPresse SpA Communication and Press Office Director
Barbara Sanicola – barbara.sanicola@lapresse.it

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3a92c0ed-48ff-4fb1-bc77-e6003bae3e36

The photo is also available at Newscom, www.newscom.com, and via AP PhotoExpress.

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“Stop Human Asteroid” Avaaz calls for action to stop extinction crisis as COP15 reaches endgame

Jurassic Park actor James Cromwell joins Avaaz and giant dinosaur to resist asteroids with faces of world leaders from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, UK

Stop the Human Asteroid

Actor and activist James Cromwell, third left, called on world leaders to “Stop the Human Asteroid” in the talks at COP15 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022. Avaaz activists joined him wearing the faces of leaders who are pushing to remove Indigenous peoples language from the text of the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

MONTREAL, Dec. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Protestors from Avaaz, together with Jurassic Park actor James Cromwell have demanded action to “Stop The Human Asteroid” and end the extinction crisis.

Gathered next to a giant dinosaur in central Montreal, Avaaz activists held other banners in the shape of asteroids, which included the faces of various world leaders such as Presidents Alberto Fernandez of Argentina, Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Emmanuel Macron of France, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and those of the Prime Ministers of Canada, Justin Trueau; China, Xi Jinping; Germany, Olaf Sholz; UK, Rishi Sunak and from Japan, Fumio Kishida.

Five days before the conclusion of the COP 15 on biodiversity, European countries and other developed countries that are pressing in the negotiations to dilute the language that refers to indigenous territories in goal 3 of the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, and are refusing to adequately finance the protection of biodiversity.

This combined position represents a “human asteroid” that threatens to destroy all ambition in the text of the Framework, the ambition to recover at least half of the world’s biodiversity by the rest of the decade, and with it the chance of avoiding mass extinction.

“Indigenous peoples have survived genocide and centuries of colonial assault on their lives and their lands” said award-winning actor and activist James Cromwell. “Today they protect 80% of the worldʼs remaining biodiversity, without which life on Earth would collapse. Yet their former European colonizers still refuse to fully recognize their rights and leadership at crucial negotiations for a deal to stop mass extinction.”

“Humanity keeps tearing apart the very fabric of life on Earth, but aer years of negotiations, governments have turned last-ditch efforts to stop mass extinction into a stand-off”, said Oscar Soria, a campaign director at Avaaz. “Now the same former colonial powers responsible for wiping out Indigenous peoples across all continents are shamelessly killing any recognition of their rights in a deal meant to protect our planetʼs remaining biodiversity.”

MEDIA CONTACTS:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fe7f4d90-69bc-4ed2-ac4a-f9de4ca7c297.

GlobeNewswire Distribution ID 8715866

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