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Virus Outbreak: Antibody testing, medicine advance: Academia Sinica

Academia Sinica Institute of Chemistry associate research fellow Chein Rong-jie, front center, and his team celebrate at the institute in Taipei yesterday after synthesizing a version of the drug remdesivir, thought to be a cure for COVID-19.Photo courtesy of Academia Sinica
Academia Sinica yesterday said that its researchers have developed an antibody testing method for COVID-19 and have made progress synthesizing remdesivir, a medicine that many believe could cure the infection.

The Centers for Disease Control on Tuesday sent serum samples to Academia Sinica of three people who had contact with Taiwan’s first COVID-19 fatality, as part of an effort to determine the source of that infection.

The three had tested negative for RNA viruses, but the centers hoped to discover if they had developed antibodies.

Test results showed that only one sample had antibodies for COVID-19 and SARS, Academia Sinica Institute of Biomedical Sciences research fellow Lin Yi-ling (林宜玲) said.

The sample was obtained from a Taiwanese businessperson who was not listed as a confirmed case, because their immune system beat the virus, she said.

Little is known about COVID-19, so it is still a mystery whether a person who has recovered from it can contract it again, she added.

The method is useful in tracing the transmission chain of a certain case, Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology Director Wu Shu-hsing (吳素幸) said, but added that testing for RNA viruses tells whether a person contracts COVID-19.

Using molecular biology and genetic engineering, Wu said that she pieced together plasmids — a kind of DNA for expressing antigens — in small templates to make up longer series of plasmids for producing the antigens used to test for COVID-19, SARS and Middle East respiratory syndrome antibodies.

Ordering massive plasmid series from overseas manufacturers takes two to three weeks, Lin said, praising Wu’s team for only needing a week.

After Institute of Biological Chemistry associate research fellow Ho Meng-chiao (何孟樵) purified the nucleocapsid protein of COVID-19 for making reagents, Lin used the western blot method to place the antigens in a serum sample for testing antibody reactions, she said.

Another team led by Institute of Chemistry associate research fellow Chein Rong-jie (陳榮傑) succeeded in synthesizing 100mg of remdesivir in two weeks.

Unable to obtain the raw materials in time, they used materials on hand and molecule synthesis, referencing public-domain literature, to make the drug, which on Thursday was 97 percent as pure as the original, Chein said.

Before the centers tasked them with the mission, Academia Sinica President James Liao (廖俊智) last month formed a task force to speed up the development of antigens, antibodies, drugs and vaccines for COVID-19.

The synthesized drug cannot be used without the consent of the US pharmaceutical firm that manufactures remdesivir, Liao said.

Nonetheless, the achievement showed that Academia Sinica is capable of drug synthesis and could facilitate mass production of the drug after a technology transfer has been completed, he added.

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Internet privacy: the apps that protect you from your apps

Worried about the data about you collected online? New start-ups are making apps that straighten out your privacy settings
Technology companies do not have favorite songs, but if they did, they would all pick Radiohead’s Just.

“You do it to yourself, you do; And that’s what really hurts,” they would croon, staring their users dead in the eye.

Strictly speaking, they would be right: many of the worst excesses of the industry are, technically, optional.

The world is not actually a binary choice between living in a surveillance state and opting out of all technological development since the turn of the millennium. You can opt out — you just have to know how.

Of course, that knowledge is not always easily acquired, nor is it necessarily easy to apply. So a new breed of services has arrived to try to help normal users take control of their digital lives.

Companies including Disconnect.Me and Jumbo act as something like a digital concierge for their users, tweaking privacy settings, deleting sensitive data and throwing a spanner into the inner workings of surveillance capitalism, but there is a Faustian pact involved: to use the privacy apps to their fullest requires handing them a level of control over your digital life that would be all too easy to abuse — and it is hard to be certain that any company can be trusted with information that sensitive.

The primary justification for the rise of privacy apps is the proliferation of settings screens in our lives and the powerful options buried within them.

Web platforms are complex beasts, with sprawling networks of linked services, spin-offs and acquisitions, each of which treats users differently, has a separate place to change privacy settings and any one of which could theoretically expose some information you would rather was kept private.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that what your settings are at any given moment probably depends on when you opened your account, when you last logged in and how good you are at reading pop-ups that flash in front of you when you just want to find out the address of the party you are going to.

Notoriously, Facebook has even actively changed privacy settings in the past, a practice for which it was hit with a “consent decree” by the US Federal Trade Commission in 2011. (Which it then broke in the course of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, leading to a US$5 billion fine.)

However, even if a company has not been so creepy as to actively change privacy settings to maximize the amount of information you publish, it can still be hard to find out exactly what you are sharing.

For instance, whether or not Google is tracking your physical location through your Android smartphone depends entirely on when you first used Google Maps and whether you have changed any settings since.

Once, the company turned location history on by default, now it does not.

Jumbo, an app for iOS and Android, launched last year with the promise that it would cut through some of that confusion.

The offer was simple: download the app, check a few boxes and it would automatically lock down your privacy settings on platforms including Facebook, Google, Twitter and Amazon.

Rather than having to hunt down every individual preferences screen, and decipher which settings are innocuous and which are merely deliberately phrased to sound innocuous, the app would do it for you.

Pierre Valade, Jumbo’s Brooklyn, New York-based founder, describes the app’s role as an advocate for users everywhere.

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references: Facebook Twitter


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Tokyo Olympics 2020: Aboriginal dance dropped from Games

‘LOGISTICAL CONSTRAINTS’:The Ainu, who were forcibly assimilated into Japan’s culture, remain hopeful about finding a way to be represented during the Olympics
Japan’s commitment to the rights of its indigenous people has been questioned after organizers of this summer’s Tokyo Olympics dropped a performance by members of the Ainu ethnic minority from the Games’ opening ceremony.

Members of the Ainu community, originally from Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, had been expecting to showcase their culture to the world in a dance at the New National Stadium, but have learned that the plans had been scrapped.

The performance had been dropped from the ceremony due to “logistical constraints,” the organizing committee said.

“Unfortunately, this particular Ainu dance performance could not be included because of logistical constraints related to the ceremonies,” the committee said in a statement.

“However, Tokyo 2020 is still deliberating other ways to include the Ainu community. We are not able to provide further details of the content of the opening and closing ceremonies,” it said.

Japan Broadcasting Corp last week said that an Ainu ceremonial dance would be included in a cultural exposition at the Tokyo National Museum next month, but Ainu representatives said that performers, who had already started rehearsing, had been anticipating an appearance on a much bigger stage.

“Everyone was looking forward to performing at the Olympic stadium,” said Kazuaki Kaizawa of the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, which started discussing the inclusion of an Ainu element in the opening ceremony with organizers three years ago.

“We are willing to talk to the organizers about how Ainu culture can be represented during the Olympics,” Kaizawa said, adding that the organizing committee had yet to explain its decision. “We’re hopeful something can be worked out.”

The decision sits uncomfortably with moves by Japan’s government to improve the status of the Ainu.

In May last year, the Japanese Diet passed a law that legally recognized them as Japan’s indigenous people, obliging the government to protect their cultural identity and ban discrimination in employment, education and other areas.

The law was intended to officially end more than a century of discrimination that began in the late 19th century, when Japan’s Meiji-era government took control of Hokkaido, where the Ainu had been hunting, fishing, practicing an animist religion and speaking their own language since the 1300s, experts said.

However, after opening the island to Japanese settlers, the government forced the Ainu, who it referred to as “former aborigines,” to assimilate.

An estimated 13,000 Ainu live in Hokkaido, according to a 2017 survey, although the actual number is thought to be much greater, as many are reluctant to identify themselves as Ainu and have moved to other parts of Japan.

Members of the Ainu community continue to encounter prejudice. They are half as likely to attend university as other Japanese, according to official data, and Ainu households can expect to earn significantly less than the national average.

In a 2017 survey, more 23 percent of Ainu people said that they had been discriminated against.

“Society was not accepting of the Ainu, and it still isn’t,” Hokkaido University anthropologist Mai Ishihara said. “There are still many people who keep their Ainu identity secret from their children.”

The lack of awareness of Japan’s indigenous people extends to the upper echelons of government.

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title: Cambodia arrests scantily clad seller over ‘pornography’

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A Cambodian woman has been provisionally charged with disseminating pornography after defying a police crackdown on women who wear skimpy clothing while selling goods on Facebook.

Ven Rachna was on Wednesday morning arrested and released hours later after filming an apology and posting it to Facebook, while in police custody, for dressing in a way that “disgraces Khmer traditions” and “affects the honor of Cambodian women.”

Rachna was rearrested in the afternoon after she posted a photograph of herself in her underwear soon after being released, police said.

Charges of producing and distributing pornography carry prison terms of up to one year.

“When we educate them and they still do not listen, we will implement the law,” Cambodian National Police spokesman Chhay Kim Khoeun told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Selling clothing and beauty products via Facebook livestreams is a rising trend in Cambodia, a conservative country where many expect women to be submissive and quiet, a legacy of Chab Srey, an oppressive code of conduct for women.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday called for authorities to track down and educate women who wore revealing clothing in livestreams, which he said disgraced Cambodia’s culture and contributed to sexual harassment and violence against women.

Amnesty International said that 39-year-old Rachna was “coerced” to sign a confession and film the apology, in which she promised to cover up.

It criticized the prime minister’s comments on sexual violence as “victim blaming.”

“She agreed to stop, but did she really agree on her own free will?” asked Ros Sopheap, head of the charity Gender and Development for Cambodia.

“The message from the government here is that there is no respect for women’s rights or even the law,” she said. “This is not about pornography. It’s about instilling fear.”

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Tragedy of the ‘tiger widow’

Women in Bangladesh are shunned after their husbands are killed by the region’s big cats
Bangladeshi mother-of-four Mosammat Rashida, whose husband was killed by a Bengal tiger a decade ago while he was collecting honey, prepares a meal at her house in Shyamnagar.Photo: AFP

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Abandoned by her sons, shunned by her neighbors and branded a witch. Mosammat Rashida’s crime? Her husband was killed by a Bengal tiger. Women like her are ostracized in many rural villages in Bangladesh, where they are viewed as the cause of their partner’s misfortune. “My sons have told me that I am an unlucky witch,” she said in her flimsy plank home, in the honey-hunters’ village of Gabura at the edge of the Sundarbans — a 10,000-square-kilometre mangrove forest that straddles Bangladesh and India.

Her husband died while out collecting honey in the jungles there.

“Honey-hunters prefer to collect honey mostly in the southwestern Sundarbans, where most of the man-eaters (tigers) live,” leading Bengal tiger expert at Jahangirnagar University, Monirul Khan, said.

Tigers are an endangered species but climate change and human development is reducing their wild habitat, often forcing them towards villages in search of food. Wildlife charities estimate there are some 100 tigers in the Bangladesh side of the Sundarbans. At least 519 men died from tiger attacks in 50 villages in one district — home to half a million people — between 2001 and 2011, according to Ledars Bangladesh, a charity helping widows reintegrate back in the villages. Their deaths are a double blow for the women left behind. Already grieving the loss of their partner, overnight they become ‘tiger widows’ — pariahs in their homes and villages at a time when they most need support.

They are often left with little means to support themselves or their families.

BAD LUCK

Rashida is heartbroken but unsurprised that her adult sons, aged 24 and 27, abandoned her and their two young siblings. “They are part of this society after all,” the 45-year-old said, as she wiped tears from her eyes.

Her tiny shack has no roof — it was blown off by a deadly cyclone — but there have been no offers of help from neighbors or officials, who she claims helped others in the village but shunned her. Instead she uses an old tarpaulin to keep the elements out. Next door, Mohammad Hossain was fixing his broken tin roof, and confessed he had been instructed by his wife not to talk to Rashida. “It would mar my family’s well-being and could bring bad luck,” the 31-year-old honey-hunter said.

Officials denied omitting Rashida from the help they provided after the cyclone. But the head of Ledars Bangladesh, Mohon Kumar Mondal, said the mistreatment of “tiger widows” was widespread in highly conservative communities, which often held “centuries old” prejudices.

“They (charities) are working to restore the widows’ dignities. The main challenge is to change people’s beliefs,” he explained. “The change is very slow. Still, I’d say there has been progress,” he added, noting that younger, more educated villagers were less fearful of the widows.

STAYING ALIVE

Rijia Khatun, who said she has learned to cope with being ostracized by her fellow villagers after her honey-hunter husband’s death 15 years ago, has been secretly supported by her nephew and his family.

“My sons were young. But nobody helped me. I felt bad at first as they kept blaming me for my husband’s death. I didn’t know what was my fault,” she recalled, adding: “But now I’ve learned to live with this adversity.”

Her nephew Yaad Ali, who has witnessed several attacks including his uncle’s, explained that while he wanted to help, he could not do so publicly. “We had to do it (help Khatun) with confidentiality or else the village society would have ostracized us as well,” he confessed. Honey hunting has traditionally been seen as a more accessible vocation for villagers who can’t afford the equipment or boats needed to undertake the region’s other main profession — fishing.

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title: Tragedy of the ‘tiger widow’


title: EVERYDAY ENGLISH

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A: Oh no, our poor plants, they’re absolutely parched. Look, most of the leaves have wilted and look ready to drop off.

B: Don’t worry, they should be able to recover if we give them plenty of water.

A: I’ll start watering them straight away.

B: OK, I’ll harvest the tomatoes. At least all this sun means they’ve ripened up nicely.

A: 哦不，可憐的植物，它們徹底乾枯了。你看︰大部分的葉子都枯萎了，看起來隨時會落下來。

B : 別擔心，如果我們給這些植物充足的水分，它們應該可以恢復。

A : 那我現在就來幫它們澆水。

B : 好，我來收成番茄。起碼這幾天的大太陽讓番茄成熟得很漂亮。

English 英文:

Chinese 中文:

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Six workers rescued from underground bunker of illegal cigarette plant in Spain

Spanish police have rescued six workers who were left trapped and gasping for air in a counterfeit cigarette factory located in a bunker 4m underground, police and Europol said on Thursday.

Both Europol and Spanish police said that it was the first underground counterfeit cigarette factory discovered in the EU.

Last week, police found the site underneath some stables near Moran, a mountain town in the southern province of Malaga.

Capable of producing more than 3,500 cigarettes per hour, the manufacturing complex was fitted with living quarters and beds, they said in separate statements.

“When officers entered the clandestine factory, they found six workers inside who were having serious difficulties breathing” because the generator that was used to pump air into the bunker had run out of gas, the police said.

Police arrested 20 people suspected of running the operation early on Feb. 13, but none of them mentioned that six Ukrainian workers were still locked inside, leaving them “abandoned to their fate.”

“When they noticed the lack of air, they headed to the exit of the ‘bunker,’ which was blocked from the outside, leading them to start screaming and banging on the container blocking the exit, but officers on the surface could not hear their calls for help because the installation was soundproof,” they said.

By the evening, officers managed to find the underground factory and used a forklift to move the shipping container that was hiding the entrance, rescuing the workers trapped inside.

“If the officials had not found the clandestine factory in time, the lack of oxygen would soon have made the conditions in the underground installations incompatible with the survival of the workers who were there,” they said.

Among those arrested was a 30-year-old Briton identified only by the initials “D.D.” who was believed to be one of the ringleaders.

Wanted by the British authorities, he went on the run when on prison furlough, while serving time for drug trafficking.

Europol said the workers had been forced to work “in extremely dangerous and toxic conditions” and were “not allowed to leave the facility on their own.”

It suspects the criminal group distributed the cigarettes on the European black market.

As part of the operation, police seized 153,000 packs of cigarettes, as well as a quantity of cannabis resin and marijuana.

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COVID-19 fears turn yen from haven to liability

MISERY LIKES COMPANY:Currency sell-offs also occurred in Singapore and South Korea as concern mounted that the outbreak would hurt trade-dependent economies
Fear of the spreading COVID-19 outbreak in China has turned the yen from a haven asset to a liability.

The Japanese currency this week has slumped about 2 percent against the US dollar to its weakest in 10 months, even as traditional havens gold and Treasuries pushed higher. As new cases of the virus mount, the impact of COVID-19 on supply chains and demand is pummeling Japan’s economy, already under pressure after last year’s sales-tax hike.

The US dollar and yen has traditionally enjoyed a close relationship with yields on US Treasuries — the financial market’s ultimate risk-free asset — especially during periods of market stress.

This time, that is not happening and the 60-day correlation between the two has fallen to the lowest since December 2018. The benchmark 10-year US yield fell to a five-month low this week, but the US dollar-yen’s move in the opposite direction suggests little haven demand for Japan’s currency.

“The yen is being sold because the Japanese economy is already weak due to the effect of the tax hike in October,” Nissay Asset Management Corp chief analyst Toshiya Matsunami said. “And the economy is expected to get even weaker.”

Currency sell-offs were not limited to the yen in Asia. Peers in Singapore and South Korea also slid as new cases of COVID-19 jumped and concern mounted that the outbreak would hurt their trade-dependent economies.

Meanwhile, with Asian governments and central banks hinting at the possibility of extra stimulus to counter the virus’ effects, speculation is growing on a potential response from the Bank of Japan.

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda yesterday said that additional easing is not necessary yet, although he would not hesitate to act if needed.

“A recession seems all but inevitable,” ING Groep NV strategists Francesco Pesole and Petr Krpata wrote in a research note on Thursday. “Accordingly, markets are starting to speculate about the Bank of Japan’s actions in terms of monetary stimulus, which is contributing to an even less attractive rate environment for the yen.”

The slump in the yen has been made worse by a surge in demand for the dollar as a higher-yielding haven currency. The potential for the US economy to outperform and the sheer distance between the US and the heart of the outbreak in China has helped the greenback push higher against both major peers and most emerging-market currencies so far this year.

“The dollar is reclaiming its original status of a haven currency,” Matsunami said. “The US economy is the strongest among developed markets and the impact from the coronavirus is seen as limited.”

Perhaps the clearest indication the yen has been kicked out of the safe haven club, at least for now, is its relationship with gold. It is sitting at a seven-year high on renewed concerns about the global economic impact of COVID-19.

Gold has surged almost 7 percent so far this year, while the yen has fallen 3 percent against the US dollar, breaking through the 112 level for the first time in almost a year on Thursday.

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title: EDITORIAL: Any excuse will do to hide the truth

people: 王春 習近平

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China on Wednesday announced that it was revoking the press credentials of three Wall Street Journal (WSJ) correspondents over the headline of a Feb. 3 opinion piece that Beijing said was racist.

While governments have the right to determine who they allow in to work, the timing and rationale given for the expulsions demonstrate yet again the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) antipathy toward freedom of speech, free press and the truth.

At issue is a column titled “China is the Real Sick Man of Asia” by Walter Russell Mead, the James Clarke Chace professor of foreign affairs and humanities at Bard College and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, in which he criticized the initial Chinese response to the emergence of a new coronavirus in Wuhan. Mead described the Wuhan government as “secretive and self-serving,” and the response by national authorities as vigorous, but ineffective. He also questioned the long-term strength and stability of the Chinese financial markets and economy.

He ended by citing the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the US, the election of US President Donald Trump and Brexit as other examples of low-probability, high-impact events that have reshaped the world order, and said that the current “coronavirus is unlikely to be the last to materialize in China.”

Not once did he use the term “sick man of Asia” in the piece. Nevertheless, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) on Feb. 6 told a news briefing that Mead “should be ashamed of your words, your arrogance, your prejudice and your ignorance.”

Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽), in announcing the expulsions on Wednesday, said Mead’s piece had sullied the efforts of the Chinese government and people to fight the epidemic, and the use of such a racially discriminatory title had triggered “indignation and condemnation among the Chinese people and the international community.”

While the headline did draw protests from many Asian Americans for using an archaic stereotype, and Mead’s arguments were criticized for making light of a serious outbreak, the ministry’s statement that the headline had been condemned by the Chinese people is risible, since the only people in China likely to have seen it are those in the government who have clearance to bypass the Great Firewall of China. The WSJ, like most other foreign media, is not sold in China and its Web site is blocked by censors.

Moreover, while none of the three WSJ staff being expelled — Beijing deputy bureau chief Josh Chin (李肇華) and reporters Deng Chao (鄧超) and Philip Wen (溫友正) — had anything to do with Mead’s column, they have written extensively on the crackdown on Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, and Wen coauthored a story about an Australian probe into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) cousin spending US$40 million at a casino. That story led to Beijing in August last year not renewing the press credential of the other author, Wong Chun Han (王春翰).

More importantly, Geng’s announcement came one day after the Trump administration designated five state-run Chinese news outlets in the US — Xinhua news agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio, the China Daily and Hai Tian Development USA — as foreign missions, which means they must register their US properties and provide Washington with the names of their employees in the US.

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China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) yesterday said it would raise domestic steel prices next quarter at an average rate of 1.9 percent, due to increasing raw material costs from rising demand on an improving economic outlook.

The nation’s largest steelmaker, which has repeatedly cut prices in previous quarters to cushion the impact of a US-China trade dispute, said in a statement that its prices have fallen far below international market quotations.

Pointing to price hikes from industry peers in the US, India, Brazil and Russia, CSC said that the overall steel industry is no longer plagued by cheap exports, adding that a halt in production from Japanese and South Korean steelmakers due to mill maintenance and repairs would further boost market demand.

The price of steel plates would increase by NT$600 (US$19.73) per tonne, while the price of steel bars and rods would rise by NT$500 per tonne, it said.

The NT$500 price increase would also apply to hot-rolled carbon steel, as well as cold-rolled sheets and coils destined for tool manufacturing, it said, adding that the same goes for hot-dipped, zinc-galvanized sheets, used in the production of consumer electronics and other high-tech devices such as PCs.

Steel products used in the auto industry or to make boats are exempt from any price increases next quarter, it said.

The Kaohsiung-based steelmaker has, for the first time, listed separate quotation prices adjusted on a monthly basis for April, as it seeks to align with global practices.

The price list shows increases of between NT$300 and NT$600 per tonne for hot and cold-rolled sheets and coils, as well as electro-galvanized sheets, among others.

CSC said that it expects what little impact the COVID-19 outbreak has on the overall steel market to be short-lived, based on the effect of SARS on the industry in 2003.

It also expects market demand to bounce back in the second quarter once the outbreak subsides, citing the China government’s plans for a nationwide economic stimulus, it said.

CSC is also upbeat over domestic market demand as the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program from President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration aims to revitalize economic activities in the nation, it said, adding that the development of offshore wind energy and growing investment from local companies would spur market demand even more.

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title: China steel to raise domestic prices


content_text:
The Council of Agriculture has announced that paraquat would be banned as scheduled from the beginning of this month. This highly lethal herbicide, which leads to approximately 200 deaths per year in the nation, is finally being phased out.

A growing number of countries have banned paraquat, including South Korea, China, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. Taiwan finally joins them in removing the chemical, which is an important step toward protecting the lives and health of farmers and their families.

The ban would not only prevent painful deaths from paraquat poisoning, but also reduce the potential risk of developing Parkinson’s disease from long-term use of the herbicide.

In June last year, Taiwan passed and implemented the Suicide Prevention Act (自殺防治法), which requires authorities to reduce access to highly lethal means of suicide. The policy to ban paraquat is not only consistent with the council’s long-term goal to reduce the use of pesticides in farming, but also complies with the law.

This suicide prevention strategy is supported by scientific evidence, which shows that banning highly hazardous pesticides is the only effective approach in reducing this kind of suicide, while other strategies, such as restricting sales of the chemical to licensed users, have shown limited success.

The WHO recommends restricting lethal means of suicide, such as firearms or highly hazardous pesticides, as one of the multilevel strategies for countries to prevent suicide. The ban on paraquat is the realization of those recommendations.

Taiwan’s phased ban on paraquat is showing some initial effects in reducing suicide. When the government announced the two-stage ban on paraquat in October 2017, sales of paraquat went up substantially for a brief period, indicating that users were stocking up on the herbicide.

Subsequently, sales fell markedly from July 2018, and deaths from paraquat poisoning declined that year — from 2015 to 2017, the average annual number of deaths from paraquat poisoning was 221, while in 2018 it dropped to 185.

Sales of paraquat further decreased last year, and mortality rates are expected to fall as well. After the ban, people attempting suicide by ingesting other pesticides would have a higher chance of survival compared with using paraquat.

This means that survivors would have a chance to receive the treatment and support they need, and the risk of death from a repeat suicide attempt is relatively low, research shows.

The following counties would benefit the most from the ban: Taitung, Hualien, Yilan, Changhua, Yunlin and Chiayi. Paraquat accounted for more than one-eighth of all suicides in those counties.

One critical step to obtaining the greatest benefit from banning it is to remove paraquat stored in households as soon as possible.

One survey showed that 60 percent of people who attempted suicide by ingesting paraquat already had it in their home and few purchased it solely for suicide. Health and agricultural departments at local governments should work together to educate farmers about the ban and encourage them to turn over their remaining supply of the herbicide to vendors or authorities.

Local governments should also survey farmers and vendors for any remaining paraquat and encourage them to use alternative herbicides or other weed-control measures that would not involve the use of pesticides.

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title: Follow paraquat ban with action


title: China hikes tensions  to distract from virus

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On Sunday, the US Seventh Fleet published a photo of the USS Chancellorsville sailing through the Taiwan Strait the day before, confirming that the guided-missile cruiser was equipped with the Aegis Combat System and was on a mission to maintain security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. The move was clearly “preventive diplomacy” or “preventive defense” directed at China.

Why did Washington take such a high-profile action as the COVID-19 outbreak in China continues to trouble Beijing?

Unnamed sources say that Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes entered Taiwan’s outer airspace twice within 24 hours on Feb. 9 and Feb. 10, crossing the median line the second day. The sources said that it was these rash actions that prompted the US act.

The Ministry of National Defense only said that the aircraft escorting China’s H-6 bombers and some other warplanes crossed the line when flying over waters south of Taiwan on their return from the Bashi Channel.

Surprisingly, sources confirmed that the Chinese J-11 planes both crossed the line and locked on to Taiwan’s military aircraft scrambling to intercept, and tensions were high.

“Locking on” to the Taiwanese jets means that the Chinese could have fired at any time, and it would have been a prelude to battle. This was an extraordinary action that goes beyond simple harassment and could be seen as a hostile provocation.

China’s past military intimidation pattern was for Chinese warplanes to leave Taiwan’s airspace after Taiwanese jets arrived and issued radio warnings, and it is rare that they would adopt this dangerous approach.

Whether the PLA pilots did so because they became nervous seeing several Taiwanese military aircraft or because they were under orders and acted intentionally, as even the slightest mistake could have accidentally sparked an incident. This is why Taiwan attaches great importance to China’s true intentions.

Washington dared not ignore the Chinese provocation, and the US Department of State immediately called on Beijing to cease its threats. On Wednesday last week, the US Air Force sent its aircraft to fly around Taiwan — an MC-130J Super Hercules military transport aircraft flying south along the Strait and two B-52s flying north-south east of Taiwan — to declare that the Strait is considered the high seas.

The next day, the US sent a P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft over the waters off Taiwan’s southernmost tip, Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), followed by the passage of the Chancellorsville on Saturday last week. Washington has since issued repeated warnings to the PLA not to misjudge the cross-strait situation.

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) recently called a high-level meeting on the future developments of the Chinese regime in order to consider worst-case scenarios. Although Tsai’s national security team predicted that Beijing would not stir up trouble in the Strait to divert domestic pressures, the possibility should not be ignored considering that the Chinese agencies responsible for Taiwan affairs and propaganda have brainwashed the Chinese public to boost hatred against Taiwan.

For example, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mouthpieces have attacked Taiwan, and there are reports that they have hired Taiwanese models to shoot videos to give the false impression that Taiwan would rather waste masks than donate them to Wuhan.

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content_text:
Two detained over alleged link to counterfeit money

TEMPLE KNOCKOFFS:The counterfeit US$100 bills were sold to Southeast Asian migrant workers, who would remit US currency back home, an officer said
Investigators display counterfeit US$100 banknotes seized by the Criminal Investigation Bureau and the New Taipei City Police Department in Taipei yesterday.Photo: Chiu Chun-fu, Taipei Times
Two men have been taken into custody for their alleged ties to a money counterfeiting ring, police said yesterday.

One suspect is a temple master surnamed Hsieh (謝). About NT$3.6 million (US$118,409) in counterfeit US banknotes was found at his temple in Taoyuan, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said in a statement, adding that the other is a Taichung resident surnamed (高).

Hsieh, 68, has been in detention since late last year, International Criminal Affairs Division officer Lee Yang-chi (李泱輯) said, adding that 61-year-old Kao was apprehended earlier this week after a weeks-long search, with prosecutors placing him under travel restrictions and confining him to his home after questioning.

“The seized US$100 bills are of very high quality owing to a high-level counterfeiting production process,” Lee said.

“They look and feel just like real US banknotes and can pass testing by small detectors used by bank clerks,” Lee added. “Most people would have difficulty determining if these are real or fake.”

A preliminary assessment of the evidence indicated that the counterfeit bills were of the same origin as those seized during a raid in December last year from a currency counterfeiting ring, which resulted in the arrest of five alleged members, the bureau said.

In that operation in Taipei, New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重), Taoyuan and Changhua County, police recovered US$11.04 million of fake US$100 bills made on a top-of-the-line printing press operated by a then-64-year-old man surnamed Liao (廖).

The bureau tracked down the suspects following reports by a bank in Taoyuan of receiving possible fake US banknotes, which passed initial detection, but were later found to be forgeries by more sophisticated equipment, Lee said.

The evidence eventually led to Hsieh, Lee said, adding that police in November last year conducted a search that uncovered 1,200 fake US$100 bills in his temple and detained him for questioning.

Kao apparently bought the counterfeit bills from Hsieh and went to local markets to sell them, exchanging one for NT$400, despite a real US$100 bill being worth about NT$3,000, Lee said.

“The counterfeits Kao sold were then locally resold to Southeast Asian migrant workers, who could remit US currency home,” Lee said, adding that Hsieh had sold about US$30,000 of fake bills.

Kao and Hsieh face charges of counterfeiting valuable securities, the bureau said, adding that an investigation is under way to verify links with Liao’s operation.

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content_text:
UNITED STATES

Bees can recognize by touch

The ability to see an object and then identify it by touch based on a mental recollection has been shown to exist in bumblebees, scientists reported on Thursday. Studying the insects’ sesame-sized brains, which contain about 1 million neurons as opposed to the 100 billion in human brains, sheds light on how cross-modal object recognition works, said Queen Mary University of London researcher Cwyn Solvi, lead author of a paper in Science. About 40 bees were tested with objects in a dark and windowless room and then with the lights on, but the bees still went to objects associated with a reward. “The bees have some unified internal representations of objects,” Solvi said.

AUSTRALIA

Two killed as train derails

Two people were killed and 12 injured when an interstate train derailed outside Melbourne on Thursday evening, police said. The train, which was traveling from Sydney, came off the rails about 50km from Melbourne. An unnamed male driver and an unidentified man died in the derailment, police said yesterday. Media carried photographs showing several carriages of the train askew off the tracks, with the locomotive on its side. Ambulance Victoria confirmed that one of the injured had been flown to a Melbourne hospital and another four people had been taken to a second hospital, where they were in stable condition. Transport authorities in New South Wales said that there were about 160 passengers on board.

LESOTHO

PM to be charged with murder

Prime Minister Thomas Thabane is to be charged with the June 2017 killing of his estranged wife, Lipolelo, a top police official said on Thursday, and the prime minister announced that he would be stepping down. The kingdom already has watched, shocked, as Thabane’s present wife, Masesaiah, was charged earlier this month with the murder after briefly fleeing the country. When the 80-year-old leader appeared yesterday at the Maseru Magistrates’ Court, he was also to face an attempted murder charge for the shooting of a person who was with his wife at the time, Deputy Commissioner of Police Paseka Mokete said.

FRANCE

Bed bug offensive begins

The government on Thursday launched a campaign to combat an influx of bed bugs that have settled in homes and hotels. After disappearing from the country in the 1950s, the insects have made a resurgence, the Ministry of Housing said. “We can all be affected,” the government warned on a Web page dedicated to the problem, complete with advice on how to prevent and treat an infestation, and a hotline number to call for expert help.

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title: World News Quick Take


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Diver Christian Redl concentrates before attempting a 71m dive in the icy waters of the Weissensee in Austria on Friday last week.Photo: AFP
It was not the way that Christian Redl’s latest deep-diving record attempt was meant to end: being hauled to the surface of Austria’s frozen Weissensee after losing consciousness in the icy waters.

Redl — dubbed the “Iceman” — experienced a blackout, something he sees as par for the course in his quest to break the record for the deepest dive under ice.

“For me, it’s not risky or dangerous. It just happened,” the 43-year-old said matter-of-factly after his unsuccessful record attempt on Friday last week.

The Austrian, who has had similar blackouts before, is part of a small group of freedivers in the world specializing in diving under ice.

His aim was to dive 71m deep into the Weissensee — itself covered in 30cm of ice — braving the 2°C water in just a wetsuit and fins.

However, exerting himself excessively on the way up resulted in a lack of oxygen to the brain, which caused a blackout.

He was dragged up by one of his six safety divers and pulled onto the ice where a waiting medical team sprang into action with an oxygen mask.

It is the latest chapter in a life dominated by a passion for diving that began at the age of six when Redl’s uncle gave him fins and a mask as a present.

They were put to use snorkeling on a Vienna Lake, before he started scuba diving at the age of 10.

Seven years later, he saw The Big Blue — French director Luc Besson’s film about the friendship and rivalry between two freedivers.

“This movie changed my life completely because my biggest dream was to become like Jean Reno in this movie, a world record holder,” Redl said.

However, work commitments meant that he only had the winter months to attempt records, which led to him to specialize in ice diving, earning him his “Iceman” moniker.

At 30, he quit his job as an investment banker to become a professional freediver, supporting himself with teaching and occasional acting work.

His ability to hold his breath under water for up to six minutes has given him a somewhat macabre niche of drowned corpse roles.

His first record came in 2003, a 90m horizontal distance dive under ice.

In preparation for his latest attempt — perhaps surprisingly — Redl only did one practice dive on the Weissensee itself, otherwise sticking to an indoor pool on the outskirts of Vienna.

“I do everything with my mental strength, so I really don’t care about the cold,” he said before the attempt on Friday.

New Zealand freediver and rival Ant Williams, the holder of the record Redl wanted to clinch, understands the challenges only too well.

“The water is not only freezing cold, it is pitch black and foreboding,” he said by e-mail.

“It is far more intimidating and uncomfortable than normal diving,” Williams said, adding that he regards his Austrian rival as “talented” and “more than capable of pushing the record deeper.”

As for his hardest dive to date, Redl said that came on Nepal’s Gokyo Lake at an altitude of 5,160m, requiring him to undertake six months of training to deal with the lack of oxygen.

“The first 10 doctors said ‘it is impossible, you will die,’” Redl said. “The 11th one said: ‘Yes, you will die, but it’s a cool project.’ So I concentrated on the second part of this sentence.”

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title: Austrian ‘Iceman’ diver chases records in the deep


title: Adimmune eyes COVID-19 drug

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Adimmune Corp (國光生技) on Thursday said it is developing a COVID-19 vaccine in cooperation with the National Health Research Institutes, and plans to run animal tests in the second quarter if its research proceeds smoothly.

The Taichung-based firm has been working to develop the vaccine utilizing its recombinant protein technology since acquiring a genetic sequence from the US Centers for Disease Control last month, Adimmune spokesman Pan Fei (潘飛) told the Taipei Times by telephone.

As the virus’ sequence reportedly evolves and appears different in separate regions, the company is attempting to determine whether the difference is considerable enough to affect the efficacy of a vaccine, Pan said.

“Though the novel coronavirus’ genetic sequence is 70 percent similar to that of the SARS virus, it is still not easy to make the vaccine,” he said.

Earlier this month National Taiwan University managed to isolate the virus strain of COVID-19, and Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗) on Monday said that it expects to conduct clinical tests for its vaccine in the second half of this year.

Adimmune would not use the isolated virus strain during its development to protect the safety of its research team, Pan said, adding that it is hard to forecast when it would enter the human trial stage

The Central Epidemic Command Center on Thursday said that an infected Taiwanese businessman returning from Zhejiang Province in China last month had antibodies against the virus in his blood.

However, Adimmune said that those antibodies would not help in the development of vaccines.

“Antibodies are created by patients’ immune systems. However, our goal is to produce an antigen against the virus, which is different,” Pan said.

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content_text:
WT, ASMedia announce NT$6.75bn share swap

IN THE MAKING:ASMedia said the companies had worked together for many years, but entered closer talks over the past two months, when WPG bought up one-third of WT
Semiconductor components distributor WT Microelectronics Co Ltd (文曄科技) yesterday announced a NT$6.75 billion (US$222.02 million) share-swap deal with IC designer ASMedia Technology Inc (祥碩), a subsidiary of Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), to jointly tap into China’s server and computer markets.

Each ASMedia share would be exchanged for 19 WT shares, WT vice president and spokeswoman Cheryl Yang (楊幸瑜) told a news conference in Taipei, after the companies’ boards approved the deal.

The share swap, aimed at strengthening cooperation between the firms, would result in WT claiming a 13.04 percent stake in ASMedia, which would in turn hold a 22.39 percent stake in WT, she said.

WT is to issue about 171 million new shares, valuing the deal at NT$6.75 billion based WT’s closing price of NT$39.5 on Thursday, while ASMedia is to issue 9 million new shares, she added.

The deal is expected to be completed by March 20, Yang said.

“We have a very optimistic outlook for the market in the near future ... despite the [COVID-19] epidemic,” WT chairman Eric Cheng (鄭文宗) said as he pointed to upcoming deployments of 5G technology.

“High-speed interfaces for data transmission would be one of the key technologies [in 5G roll-outs] ... a domain in which ASMedia excels,” Cheng said, adding that he believes that the strategic cooperation between the two firms would blossom into a long-term partnership benefiting both sides.

The deal has long been in the making, said ASMedia president and spokesman Lin Che-wei (林哲偉), who is also an independent member of WT’s board of directors.

“We have already worked together for many years, as WT is one of our sales agents,” Lin said, adding that the two firms entered closer talks over the past two months.

This could suggest that the share swap is aimed at weakening WPG Holdings Co’s (大聯大投資控股) grasp on WT.

WPG more than a month ago acquired an additional 17 percent stake in WT in a hostile takeover bid, leading WPG to claim nearly one-third of WT’s shares, but stopping short of a controlling stake in the company.

WT’s management team has been highly critical of WPG’s move, accusing it of monopolizing the local chip distribution market, and has taken the case to the Fair Trade Commission.

The share swap would result in a more than 20 percent dilution of WT’s shareholders’ stock, while ASMedia’s shareholders would see their ownership percentage slip more than 10 percent.

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title: Another NT$4.11bn spent in 5G auction

content_text:
Another NT$4.11bn spent in 5G auction

PRICES CONTINUE RISING:In the second phase of 5G auctions, Chunghwa spent more than NT$2 billion to grab space, bringing its total auction spending to NT$48.37 billion
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (FET, 遠傳電信) yesterday spent an additional NT$4.11 billion (US$135.2 million) combined to secure optimal 5G bandwidth, boosting the nation’s 5G auction total to NT$142.19 billion.

The auction price was the world’s third-highest after Germany and Italy, which raised 6.55 billion euros each through 5G bandwidth auctions.

In the second phase of the auction, telecoms bid to secure bandwidth on optimal zones in the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) frequency band, after month-long negotiations over arrangements of frequency regions failed.

Chunghwa Telecom spent another NT$2.08 billion acquiring spectrum from 3.42GHz to 3.51GHz, the best zone in the 3.5GHz band, given extensive equipment supply and no second-harmonic frequency interference from existing 4G networks.

“Despite a higher-than-expected cost, our plan for 5G deployment remains unchanged. We aim to launch 5G service in July, based on which our customers will be able to watch the Tokyo Olympics in 4K and VR,” Chunghwa chairman Hsieh Chi-mau (謝繼茂) said in a statement.

The nation’s biggest telecom has spent NT$48.37 billion to win bandwidth in the 5G auction, company data showed. In the previous round, Chunghwa Telecom secured 90 megahertz (MHz) of premium bandwidth in the 3.5GHz band.

FET spent an additional NT$2.03 billion on securing spectrum from 3.34GHz to 3.42GHz, both also considered good zones, the company said.

FET plans to launch 5G service in the third quarter.

Although it did not win frequency in the best area, the carrier said that it is confident that it can still offer faster Internet connections and better 5G services than its rivals, as it won 80MHz bandwidth in the 3.5GHz band.

FET has spent NT$43.04 billion in the two rounds of bidding, company data showed.

Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Taiwan Star Telecom Co (台灣之星) yesterday did not spend anything vying for the optimal zones, gaining space in the spectrum of 3.51GHZ to 3.57GHZ and 3.3GHZ to 3.34GHZ respectively, the companies said.

Those zones are considered less ideal, as fewer manufacturers provide terminals and equipment for them and they might experience interference from satellites, a market observer said.

Taiwan Mobile said that its bandwidth would be enough to serve customers for the next decade, as it plans to launch 5G service in the third quarter, while Taiwan Star said that it would launch its new service as soon as possible.

Taiwan Mobile and Taiwan Star spent NT$30.65 billion and NT$19.7 billion respectively in the two phases respectively, companies data showed.

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title: E*Trade deal tests regulatory mood

content_text:
Morgan Stanley’s takeover of brokerage E*Trade Financial Corp reflects a more relaxed regulatory mood in Washington, but it is still a gamble in an election year when Democrats continue to shine a spotlight on Wall Street excesses, analysts said.

The bank’s CEO James Gorman on Thursday said that he expected the US$13 billion all stock deal, the largest by a Wall Street giant since the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis, to be completed by the fourth quarter with little regulatory pushback.

His confidence underscores a seismic shift in Washington, where a more industry-friendly tone from US President Donald Trump’s regulators has helped unleash other bumper deals in the financial sector.

In November last year, Charles Schwab Corp said that it was buying rival TD Ameritrade, in a US$26 billion blockbuster deal. That announcement came days after federal bank regulators approved the US$28 billion merger of BB&T Corp and SunTrust into a new firm called Truist Financial Corp in just nine months.

Such a bold move by Morgan Stanley, one of the riskiest banks in the US with roughly US$900 billion in assets, would test regulators’ limits during an election year in which Democratic primary candidates are burnishing their bank-bashing credentials.

The deal would have to get the green light from the US Federal Reserve, and potentially other financial watchdogs. Progressive Democrats say megabanks put the financial system and consumers at risk, and have called for big lenders to be broken up.

“This is not going to be an easy deal to move through the Federal Reserve. Morgan Stanley is a globally significant financial institution, which means any sizable deal is subject to strict review,” Cowen Washington Research Group’s Jaret Seiberg wrote in a note on Thursday.

Casting doubt on Gorman’s timeline, Seiberg said the approval process could spill beyond the November election, during which time the CEOs of both companies would likely have to justify the deal before the US Congress.

The election also poses a risk to the deal, he added, although terms for some key Fed officials do not expire until next year.

The Federal Reserve declined to comment on the deal.

Banking deals languished after the financial crisis due to strict capital and liquidity rules imposed on lenders with more than US$50 billion in assets, making it unattractive for mid-size lenders to acquire more assets. Regulators also aggressively enforced rules that allow them to bar firms with compliance issues from expanding.

That freeze has thawed in recent years partly because Congress eased some post-crisis constraints in 2018, and partly because Trump-appointed Fed officials have sped up approvals and been more flexible on compliance hurdles.

The central bank’s approval period fell from an average of 297 days in 2015 to 135 during the first half of last year, its data showed.

The value of mergers and acquisitions among commercial, savings and investment banks reached US$54.66 billion by November last year, the highest since 2009, data from Dealogic showed.

Although that bodes well for Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street giant’s size, complexity and push into retail banking poses heightened regulatory and political risk for the deal.

Morgan Stanley is among the top five riskiest banks in the US by some key measures, including short-term wholesale funding needs and leverage, data from the US Treasury’s Office of Financial Research showed.

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title: Pan Men-an tucks into lemon dish in bid to boost sales

content_text:
Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Men-an (潘孟安) has posted a video of himself eating a dessert of lemons, ground coffee beans and brown sugar as part of efforts to promote locally grown produce after a previous campaign boosted the sale of locally grown bananas last year.

In the Facebook video, Pan — who received the highest approval rating of 22 local government heads in a CommonWealth Magazine survey last year — shares his preference for the “Western” style of eating lemons.

At the beginning of the video, Pan appears hesitant about eating the slices of lemon dusted with ground coffee beans and brown sugar when he says the best way to eat lemon slices is to stain them with salt.

“Salted lemon slices are the best, no joking,” Pan says.

However, as soon as he begins to sample the lemon slices, he cannot stop eating them.

A new convert to the unfamiliar way of eating lemons, Pan says: “Nice” at the end of the video.

Lemon slices dusted with coffee and sugar, a dessert which originated in Italy, are becoming a favorite in Aboriginal communities in Pingtung County, said Lee Ming-fang (李明芳), a local business operator who told Pan about the “new” way of eating lemons.

In the video, Pan promotes locally grown lemons, saying that seven out of 10 lemons sold in Taiwan are from Pingtung.

“You should try them, they are healthy and tasty,” he says, comparing the combination of lemon slices, coffee and brown sugar with expensive Italian desserts.

Pingtung County has 1,853 hectares of lemon orchards, accounting for 70 percent of orchards nationwide, Pan says in the video.

Lee said that her hometown of Zhutian (竹田) is one of the main sources of Pingtung County lemons, but local farmers have suffered from receiving meager prices for their harvests over the past two years.

By sharing this “new” way of consuming lemons, it is hoped that sales of the fruit and locally grown coffee beans would receive a boost, she said.

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title: Taiwan News Quick Take

content_text:
EDUCATION

NTU rises in rankings

National Taiwan University (NTU) has been ranked eighth in this year’s Emerging Economies University Rankings, up two spots from last year. The rankings, compiled by the London-based Times Higher Education magazine, listed 533 universities in 47 nations. Besides Taiwan, the other nations with universities in the top 10 were China, which claimed seven of the 10 places, Russia and South Africa. China’s Tsinghua University, Peking University and Zhejiang University retained the top three spots. The number of Taiwanese universities in the rankings increased to 36 from 32 last year, with four others listed in the top 50 — Taipei Medical University (28th), National Tsing Hua University (29th), National Chiao Tung University (42nd) and National Cheng Kung University (45th). The universities were ranked based on their scores in four categories — learning environment; volume and quality of published research; level of internationalization; and relationship with the business sector.

HEALTH

Poor air quality forecast

Air quality is expected to remain poor in parts of the west of the nation until Thursday next week due to a lack of wind to disperse atmospheric pollutants, the Environmental Protection Administration said. The lack of wind is the result of a weakening cold air mass after temperatures nationwide rebounded on Wednesday, the agency said. From Monday to Wednesday next week, at night and in the early morning, areas south of Hsinchu and Miaoli counties could see surface temperature inversions that cause air quality in those areas to be unhealthy, it said. Temperature inversion is a reversal of the normal behavior in the troposphere, in which a layer of cool air is overlain by warmer air. It plays a major role in air quality, especially during the winter. As pollutants from vehicles and industry are emitted, the inversion traps these near ground level.

CRIME

Woman found guilty of libel

A woman surnamed Yu (游) has been found guilty of breaching Article 310 of the Criminal Code for badmouthing a man she dated, with the New Taipei District Court ruling that she should serve 30 days in prison or pay a NT$30,000 fine. Yu was accused of libel by a man surnamed Hou (侯), after Yu posted an account of a meeting with Hou on an online forum. Yu said that she met Hou — who was attending the same university — after a party and Hou had tried to date her. Yu said she had agreed to meet him for dinner, but disliked the way he conducted himself, writing: “I was astounded and just wanted to leave the restaurant.” Yu also implied that Hou was a stalker, writing: “Who would want to be a weirdo’s girlfriend,” as well as calling him “delusional” and a “pervert.”

TOURISM

Kinmen woos local firms

Representatives of local travel operators this week took in the sights of Kinmen as part of efforts to attract more tourists to the offshore county. The county is looking to build on its efforts to attract tourists by including more interactive experiences, as well as do-it-yourself activities, said Golden Universal Travel director Sun Shu-te (孫樹德), who helped organize the tour. The tour included guides with first-hand experience of Kinmen’s military history, as they have proven to be especially popular among tourists, Sun said. Kinmen County Tourism Department Director Ting Chien-kang (丁健剛) said that the local government would continue to work with travel operators to rejuvenate tourism.

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title: Banks to offer more to high-worth clients: FSC

content_text:
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) on Thursday said it is launching new wealth management rules that would allow eligible banks to offer their high-asset customers new financial products and services next quarter.

The new rules, part of the Regulations Governing Banks Conducting Financial Products and Services for High-Asset Customers (銀行辦理高資產客戶適用之金融商品及服務管理辦法), would take effect after a 60-day notice, FSC Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said.

“We will collect opinions from banks or relevant institutions during this period. Meanwhile, 60 days should be enough for the banks to prepare to kick-start new services,” Koo said.

BIGGER RISK

As the new financial products generate higher investment risks, only banks with solid financials, large-scale management services and good corporate governance would qualify, Koo added.

The FSC requires qualifying banks to maintain a minimum common equity Tier-1 ratio of 9.5 percent, a minimum Tier-1 capital ratio of 11 percent and a capital adequacy ratio no less than 13 percent in total, he said.

The banks’ aggregate amount of investable client assets must be equal to or higher than NT$300 billion (US$9.87 billion), while their outstanding balance in trust and over-the-counter structured products minus securities under custody must be equal to or higher than NT$150 billion, Koo said.

Banks that have been fined for breaching regulations are not eligible to apply for the program, he said.

After the 60-day notice, the FSC would announce the list of eligible banks, he said.

High-asset customers are defined as having more than NT$100 million, similar to private banks in Hong Kong, Koo said.

CLIENT COMMUNICATION

Under the new regulations, participating banks must discuss risks with their clients in person or through videoconferencing, and confirm that they understand the risks before selling them the new products, he said.

The new program permits banks to provide eight new financial products or services, such as foreign-currency-denominated structured notes and derivatives linked to the TAIEX or other index in the local equity market, the commission’s data showed.

Last year, Koo said that the new rules would help banks expand their wealth management services to compete with Hong Kong and Singapore, with the former’s financial-hub status showing weakness in the months since pro-democracy protests started in June last year.

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content_text:
Premier touts Cabinet’s achievements

EXTENSION:The Transitional Justice Commission will continue, as it is impossible for decades of injustices to be redressed in just two years, Su Tseng-chang said
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday hold placards on the floor of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei urging the government to improve its disease-prevention measures.Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei touted his Cabinet’s achievements in areas ranging from disease prevention, the cultural and creative sectors, and renewable energy to collaborations with the indigenous defense industry.

Su was giving his administrative report and answered legislators’ questions on the first day of the new legislative session.

An outbreak of COVID-19 has continued to spread since the coronavirus appeared in Wuhan, China, in December last year and because Taiwan is on the front line of disease prevention, the government has introduced a disease-prevention, relief and recovery bill aimed at safeguarding the health of all Taiwanese and helping affected industries over times of hardship, Su said.

The government has also been implementing policies to transform the nation’s energy mix, Su said, adding that work to install photovoltaic and wind power facilities have begun to bear fruit.

The nation’s electricity operating reserve slumped to 1.64 percent in May 2015, but thanks to the construction of offshore wind farms and solar power facilities, the operating reserve and reserve margin have consistently hit 10 percent and 16 percent respectively since June last year, ensuring stable power supplies, he said.

Photovoltaic electricity generation on Sept. 2 last year reached 2 million kilowatt-hours, exceeding the output capacity of generators at the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) or the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County, he said.

Meanwhile, 22 wind turbines on a wind farm off Miaoli County’s Jhunan Township (竹南) have commenced operations and are expected to produce enough electricity to power 128,000 households — more than half of the number of households in the county, he said.

The government has also been collaborating with the local defense industry on projects to build indigenous planes and ships, Su said.

The T-5 “Brave Eagle” advanced jet trainer debuted last year and is scheduled to make its maiden flight in June, he said, adding that contractor Aerospace Industrial Development Corp plans to deliver all 66 jets ordered by 2026.

Later this year, the Coast Guard Administration is to take ownership of a 4,000-tonne cruiser — the nation’s largest ever — that can carry helicopters, Su said.

The navy is expecting to receive 71 new vessels by 2029, he added.

In an effort to nourish the cultural and creative sectors, the government earmarked a NT$40.3 billion (US$1.33 billion) budget, part of which was used to incorporate technology into the local film industry, he said, adding that the highly successful movie Detention (返校), adapted from a computer game, was a successful example of a collaboration between the video game and film industries.

Meanwhile, the Taiwan Creative Content Agency, which was launched in November last year, is to embark on collaborations with the film, TV and music industries, the publishing industry, the digital publishing industry, the anime, comic and video game industries, as well as the fashion and art sectors, he said.

The collaborations would be driven by two projects approved by the Executive Yuan: The NT$10 billion “mid-term project to develop the film, TV and music industries” and the “Huashan 2.0 cultural content industrial cluster development project,” in the hope of improving the quality and marketing of locally produced cultural and creative content, he said.

taiwan-subdivisions: 竹南 萬里

title: Premier touts Cabinet’s achievements


title: Virus Outbreak: Prisons become virus hotspot in China

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Hospital workers wear masks as a preventive measure against COVID-19 as they pick up packages from a courier outside the Peking University People’s Hospital in Beijing yesterday.Photo:AFP
More than 500 cases of COVID-19 have been detected in prisons across China, authorities said yesterday, prompting the sacking of a slew of officials.

China’s Hubei Province said that 271 cases were reported by its prisons on Thursday, including 220 that had previously not been known to provincial authorities.

Most of those cases were at the Wuhan Women’s Prison in the province’s capital, Chinese Bureau of Prison Administration Director He Ping (何平) told reporters.

The warden of Wuhan Women’s Prison was removed for failing to prevent the outbreak, the Hubei Daily reported.

Seven guards and 200 inmates also tested positive for the virus at Rencheng Prison in eastern Shandong Province, the Shandong Provincial Health Committee told a news conference.

Shandong Provincial Department of Justice Director Xie Weijun (解維俊) and seven other officials were sacked, officials said.

The new cases show that the “implementation of our prevention and control measures have not been effective,” Shandong Prison Administration Bureau Director Wu Lei (吳磊) said.

Another 34 cases were found at Shilifeng Prison in Zhejiang Province, leading to the ouster of its director and another official.

A policeman had “deliberately concealed” information about a visit to Wuhan in the middle of January and continued to work at the prison, Zhejiang Provincial Justice Department Deputy Directory Xu Xiaobo (徐曉波) said.

Yesterday, Hubei announced that 411 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the province on Thursday, but later revised its figure to 631 to include the prison numbers.

IRAN

Iran yesterday confirmed 13 new COVID-19 cases, two of whom have died, with the outbreak there coming just as the country votes in a parliamentary election.

The majority of the cases in Iran have been in Qom, a Shiite Muslim holy city 120km south of Tehran.

The number of cases in Iran stands at 18, with four of those people having died.

Health officials on Thursday called for the suspension of all religious gatherings in Qom.

ITALY

Three people have tested positive in Italy for COVID-19, the northern Lombardy region said yesterday — the first known cases of local transmission of the illness.

Looking to contain the virus, officials urged residents to stay at home.

“Most of the contacts of those tested positive for coronavirus have been identified and subjected to the necessary tests and measures,” the region said in a statement.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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content_text:
Nation’s UK assets at risk of being seized over lawsuit

INTERNATIONAL DISPUTE:The dispute stems from Taipei’s efforts to regain the illegal gains of an arms dealer from accounts that a firm also filed a claim over
An international legal dispute between the Republic of China (ROC) and Singapore-based Strategic Technologies could result in Taiwan’s assets in the UK being seized should a British court rule in the firm’s favor.

The dispute stems from Taipei’s efforts in 2012 to regain the illegal gains of arms dealer Andrew Wang (汪傳浦) from a Cayman Islands account and the company filing a claim over the same accounts. Wang died in London in 2015.

The firm has said it has legitimate debtor’s claims to the money, citing a consent order signed by the Ministry of National Defense.

The ministry signed the order at the behest of then-prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘), who was presiding over efforts to obtain Taiwan’s claims to kickbacks Wang was found to have received for facilitating the navy’s purchase of Lafayette-class frigates from France in the early 1990s.

The company in 2012 filed a request with a Caymanian court to uphold a 2002 Singaporean court ruling and to confiscate the US$3.42 million in Wang’s account as capital and interest.

In 2002, the Singaporean High Court ruled in favor of the firm in a lawsuit against the ministry over its confiscation in 1998 of a US$140,000 guarantee due to Strategic Technologies’ failure to deliver an underground test range measuring system as part of a US$1.96 million contract.

The Singaporean court ordered the ministry to pay the firm compensation of US$1.57 million.

Strategic Technologies has cited the 2002 ruling to justify attempts to confiscate ROC property in Belgium, France and the US.

The company filed for registration of enforcement of foreign judgement over the Singaporean ruling with the British court, which approved the filing in 2005.

The ministry has dismissed the Singaporean court’s ruling, saying that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction, because, per their contract, any legal conflicts should be resolved in a Taiwanese court under Taiwanese law.

In 2012, the company’s claims were upheld by the Caymanian court, meaning that under the consent order, the ministry would have to cede the funds to Strategic Technologies.

In 2016, the British court approved the company’s registration to acknowledge the Caymanian ruling.

Seizing the victory, Strategic Technologies filed a claim with the British court to seize all ROC assets in the UK, including Taiwan’s representative office, the central bank’s London branch and Bank of Taiwan’s (臺灣銀行) London office.

The assets were last year seized by the British government as “collateral.” A ruling was scheduled to be announced in London yesterday.

Ministry officials said that they are looking at measures to address the issue, adding that specific details could not be disclosed until after the ruling.

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title: Elephant in Argentina packs trunk for Brazil

content_text:
Asian elephant Mara gets her foot disinfected in her enclosure at the former city zoo in Buenos Aires on Tuesday.Photo: Reuters

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Mara the elephant is packing for what might be the final trip of her 54-year life spent globe-trotting from India to Germany before joining circuses in Montevideo and Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she has been for the past 25 years.

Now she is readying to say goodbye before a 2,700km trip from Buenos Aires to a new home near the city of Chapada dos Guimaraes, Brazil, a vast specially designed sanctuary for elephants like her.

Mara’s road trip is to take almost a week in an overland convoy, during which time she is to be housed in a huge box and accompanied by caretakers to look after her safety — and that of others.

Guillermo Wiemeyer, a veterinarian who works with Mara, said that the team had been getting her ready for the journey, taking blood tests and cultures to ensure she could travel across borders, and acclimatizing her to the mode of transport.

“What we are hoping is that she will enter the box of her own accord, because she won’t travel under anesthesia or any type of sedative,” he said.

Mara’s new home, the 1,133-hectare Elephant Sanctuary Brazil, would give her more space with pasture land, streams, steep hills and the chance to meet other Asian elephants living in the reserve, Wiemeyer said.

“The environment she lives in will go from being a few thousand square meters to hectares,” he said. “The link with the land, water and other elephants will be incomparable.”

However, saying goodbye is not easy. Mara needs to go through a quarantine period before she travels, likely toward the end of next month, to get the green light from authorities in Argentina and Brazil.

“Logically we have mixed feelings because a bond is built up over so many years of living together,” Wiemeyer said.

“But we are sure that the doors of a new life will be opened where what she will be able to do above all is start making choices for herself, and for us that is fundamental because it’s the first step toward animal welfare,” Wiemeyer said.

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People walk past a “Ti Toilet” mobile, women-only bathroom at a public park in Pune, India, on Feb. 9.Photo: AFP
Like many Indian women, college student Suvarna Dongare dreads getting caught short when she is out and about, with hygienic public toilets in short supply across the country.

So she was pleasantly surprised to find a pink women-only “washroom-on-wheels” in a public park in western India — one of several facilities dotting the city of Pune, where a pair of entrepreneurs have transformed run-down buses into hop-on toilets.

“I came to the park and wanted to visit the bathroom urgently. These toilets are very comfortable and felt safe,” 18-year-old Dongare told reporters.

For a relatively affordable 5 rupees (US$0.07), any woman can board the toilet to use the facilities, breastfeed babies or purchase sanitary napkins and diapers.

Launched in 2016 by entrepreneurs Ulka Sadalkar and Rajeev Kher, the “Ti Toilet” project — “ti” means “her” in the local Marathi language — has 12 mobile washrooms, on average used by more 200 women daily. The buses are powered by solar panels mounted on top of the vehicle.

Sadalkar said that the pair, who run a portable sanitation business, came up with the idea as part of a series of projects focused on improving hygiene in the city.

“We believe women deserve access to clean and safe washrooms, and it is their basic right,” she told reporters, adding that the duo wanted to open 1,000 toilets across India in the next five years.

“We focused a lot on aesthetics in refurbishing these buses and provided clean toilets, television sets, temperature monitors with an attendant in tow,” she added.

Manisha Adhav, 40, who operates one of the toilets, told reporters that she felt “proud working here as we are doing something for women.”

“Women bless me ... as they come here from far away areas, as well, because there aren’t enough public washrooms around,” she added.

Even as India went on a building spree constructing millions of toilets as part of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship “Clean India” program, experts said that the lack of water or electricity meant many remain unused.

State governments have struggled to maintain public toilets, which are often poorly lit, unmonitored, and reek of urine and feces.

These too are mostly used by men, with women — fearing for their safety — going long hours without using such facilities.

Modi in October last year declared India free of open defecation and said that 600 million people had been provided with access to toilets.

However, experts questioned the claims and said that sanitation and safety remain intertwined for millions of Indian women.

Finding “clean and safe washrooms in public spaces is not easy during emergencies. We are trying to change that,” Adhav said.

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title: India start-up turns buses into mobile ladies’ rooms


content_text:
Russia supporting Trump campaign: US intelligence

CLOSED-DOOR BRIEFING:The report raises concerns about whether Trump’s administration is taking steps to combat the kind of interference that the US saw in 2016
Intelligence officials have warned US lawmakers that Russia is interfering in this year’s US presidential election campaign to help US President Donald Trump get re-elected, two officials said on Thursday.

The disclosure, in a closed-door briefing last week, raises questions about the integrity of the US presidential campaign and whether Trump’s administration is taking the proper steps to combat the kind of interference that the US saw in 2016.

The two officials who were familiar with the briefing spoke on the conidtion of anonymity.

The warning was first reported by the New York Times and the Washington Post.

The Times said that the report infuriated Trump, who complained that US Democrats would use the information against him.

Over the course of his presidency, Trump has dismissed the intelligence community’s assessment of Russia’s 2016 election interference as a conspiracy to undermine his victory.

One day after the briefing to the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Trump berated then-Acting US Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire and he announced this week that Maguire would be replaced by Richard Grenell, a Trump loyalist.

Shelby Pierson, the US intelligence community’s top election security official, told NPR in an interview that aired last month that the Russians “are already engaging in influence operations relative to candidates going into 2020, but we do not have evidence at this time that our adversaries are directly looking at interfering with vote counts or the vote tallies.”

Pierson, appointed in July last year by then-US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, works with intelligence agencies such as the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency and the US Department of Homeland Security to identify anyone seeking to interfere with US elections.

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content_text:
Hsieh, Strycova ease into Dubai semis

COMEBACK QUEEN:Just one day after rallying for the victory, Simona Halep again found herself in dire straits, but found her rhythm to stage a come-from-behind win
By Dave Carroll / Staff reporter, with AFP,
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates
Croatia’s Petra Martic returns to Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit in their Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships singles quarter-final in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.Photo: AP
Taiwanese-Czech duo Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strycova on Thursday remained on course for a second doubles title of the season by easing through the quarter-finals at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

The top seeds took just 59 minutes to complete an emphatic 6-3, 6-0 victory over Americans Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands on the hard courts in the United Arab Emirates.

The reigning champions saved four of five break points and converted six of seven, winning 84 percent of the points on their opponents second serve to improve their season record to 11-1, the only loss in the final of the Australian Open in Melbourne last month.

Hsieh and Strycova were late yesterday to face Canadian-Chinese duo Gabriela Dabrowski and Zhang Shuai in the semi-finals after the fourth seeds took just 63 minutes to see off the challenge of Ukrainian twins Lyudmyla and Nadiia Kichenok 6-2, 6-4.

In the singles, top seed Simona Halep had to come from behind for a second straight day, overhauling Aryna Sabalenka 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 to reach the semi-finals.

Halep, who had saved a match point in knocking out Ons Jabeur 24 hours earlier, said that she had to pick up her pace after losing the first set.

“Everything was a little bit fast, too powerful. When I got the rhythm, it was much easier for me to feel the game,” the world No. 2 said. “I played quicker in the second and third set. She didn’t have time to hit the ball. I think that was the key of the match. It’s good to have tough matches. I’m here to give everything I have to win every match I play. I’m happy with these matches.”

The Romanian was to face Jennifer Brady for a place in the final.

US qualifier Brady, who beat third seed Elina Svitolina in the first round, booked her semi-final spot by dispatching ninth seed Garbine Muguruza, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-4.

Elena Rybakina took a season-leading 18th victory with a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 win over second seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.

The Kazakh winner has been on a tear this season, winning in Hobart, Australia, and reaching the finals in Shenzhen, China, and last weekend in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Rybakina was due to face Petra Martic after the Croatian eighth seed defeated Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 7-6 (7/4), 6-1.

As she had on Wednesday, when playing Jabeur, Halep had to fight her way out of a deficit after losing the opening set.

The 2015 Dubai champion lifted her game to win the second and ran off to a 4-1 lead in the third, before finishing off three games later.

The victory avenged a loss Halep suffered against Sabalenka last month in Adelaide, Australia.

Brady, who ranks just outside the top 50, has stunned herself with her form this week.

“I was able to find a way, I wasn’t feeling my best,” she said. “Maybe I didn’t play my best tennis, but I stayed in there, competed and came out on top.”

Brady recovered from a set down against the Spanish two-time Grand Slam winner, winning the second set by breaking her opponent’s final two serves.

She finished off the upset a set later on a second match point.

“I had so many opportunities, I can’t count how many I had. They didn’t go my way,” said Australian Open runner-up Muguruza, who converted on only one of 10 break points. “Every time I had an opportunity, she was playing the point well, serving big, making winners.”

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title: Hsieh, Strycova ease into Dubai semis


title: SPORTS BRIEFS

content_text:
CYCLING

Giro to cross iconic bridge

Budapest’s oldest bridge is to be crossed by riders on the first stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia after its use was originally ruled out because of planned renovation works. A statement said that race organizers had reached an agreement with the city government to include the iconic Szechenyi Chain Bridge for stage one, an 8.6km individual time trial. The bridge across the Danube was completed in 1849 and remains one of the city’s most visible landmarks, although increased traffic means major work is required. It is the 14th time the Giro has started outside Italy, but the first time an eastern European city is to host. After the initial time trial, there would be two further stages in Hungary before the race switches back to Italy. The Giro begins on May 9.

CRICKET

India win World Cup opener

Leg-spinner Poonam Yadav yesterday bowled India to an upset 17-run win over defending champions Australia in the opening game of the Women’s Twenty20 World Cup in Sydney. India were restricted to 132-4 off their 20 overs and a half-century from Australian opener Alyssa Healy appeared to have the hosts on track for victory. However, the dangerous Yadav took 4-19 to halt their momentum, with Australia all out for 115 with one ball to spare.

FOOTBALL

Owners approve new CBA

NFL owners on Thursday accepted the terms of a proposed new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), with the lone hurdle remaining being a vote of approval by the players. The NFL released a statement indicating that the owners have approved the negotiated terms of the deal. The current agreement was ratified in 2011 and is to expire following the 2020-2021 season. “Following more than 10 months of intensive and thorough negotiations, the NFL players and clubs have jointly developed a comprehensive set of new and revised terms that will transform the future of the game .... and ensure that the NFL’s second century is even better and more exciting for the fans,” the league said in a statement. If approved by the players, the new deal could reportedly go into effect in time for the new season, which begins on March 18.

RUGBY UNION

Crusaders crush Highlanders

Reigning champions Canterbury Crusaders yesterday celebrated 25 years in Super Rugby with a 33-13 demolition of the Highlanders in Christchurch, New Zealand. The 10-time title winners chose this week to celebrate the Southern Hemisphere competition’s silver jubilee, inviting more than 200 former players to a post-match function in their hometown. The current players turned on the style as their predecessors looked on, scoring five tries to two as they bossed the South Island derby. The Crusaders scored four first-half tries in front of an ecstatic home crowd, capitalizing on some woeful Highlanders defense. The visitors’ task was made more difficult when Shannon Frizzell was sin-binned early after the break for a tip-tackle on Braydon Ennor. The Highlanders lifted and were rewarded with a try to Jona Nareki, but Sione Havili put the result beyond doubt when he crossed the line with six minutes left on the clock.

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content_text:
Rory McIlroy was on Thursday in control of all facets of his game as he charged into the first-round lead with a six-under-par 65 at the WGC-Mexico Championship.

McIlroy smashed his drives prodigious distances in the thin Mexico City air and complemented his long game with precise putting in earning a two-shot advantage over Americans Justin Thomas and Bubba Watson at Club de Golf Chapultepec.

“I like this place, like the golf course and have always played well at altitude for whatever reason that is,” the world No. 1 said after capping off his day by sinking a 10-foot birdie.

McIlroy in November last year won the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai and victory this week would see him complete the set of all four World Golf Championships.

The Northern Irishman has been in stellar form early in the new season, with a tie for fifth in Los Angeles on Sunday his worst result in four starts.

Accuracy from the tee is crucial at the tree-lined Club de Golf Chapultepec, but McIlroy did not hold back, hitting three drives of more than 365 yards.

However, it was his putting that pleased him most a week after an ill-fated experiment with a 35-inch model that was slightly longer than his usual putter.

“Once I got out there [last week], that inch difference with the putter moves your eyeline and you stop seeing your lines the way you usually do,” McIlroy said.

“I saw the tournament through with it. It didn’t work quite the way I wanted so ... happy to have old faithful back in the bag and it worked well today,” he said.

“It was definitely validation to going back to the putter I’d been using for the last 14 months. If I keep putting like that, I’ll be very happy,” he added.

Nipping at McIlroy’s heels, Thomas and Watson each mixed five birdies with one bogey in shooting 67 as they bounced back from missing the cut last week.

Two-time Masters champion Watson, who enjoyed a round with pop star Justin Bieber last weekend after missing the cut at the Genesis Invitational, had better luck on the greens on Thursday.

At the other end of the field, defending champion Dustin Johnson ran up four bogeys and a double-bogey in a 76 that left him equal 62nd in the 72-man field.

PUERTO RICO OPEN

AFP, MIAMI

Kyle Stanley, looking for his first PGA Tour title since 2017, on Thursday fired an eight-under-par 64 to take a two-shot first-round lead in the Puerto Rico Open.

Stanley posted a career-high nine birdies, hitting all 18 greens in regulation and dropping his only shot of the day at the eighth.

He birdied the first three holes — and four of the first five — on the par-72 Coco Beach Golf Course.

He added another four birdies in a row from the ninth through the 12th and picked up one last birdie at the 15th.

“Just kind of caught a hot putter,” Stanley said. “Ball-striking was pretty good and felt like I drove it well, too. Just a pretty solid round of golf.”

It was a welcome turnaround for Stanley, winner of the 2012 Phoenix Open and 2017 Quicken Loans National, who has made just four cuts in 11 starts in this season.

Six players shared second on 66: Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo, Sweden’s Henrik Norlander, Australian Rhein Gibson, and Americans Josh Teater and Peter Uihlein.

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title: McIlroy secures two-shot WGC-Mexico lead with 65