“My dad was an ordinary man, who led an ordinary life,” Hung Chun-hsiung said. THOUSANDS OF WORKSNow, more than 2,500 of his works dating from 1930 to 1996 are to return home from the US, after Hung Chun-hsiung and his family decided to donate them to the Ministry of Culture. “As we walked, he said that he could hear music playing, although I could only hear the sound of waves,” Hung Chun-hsiung said. Hung Jui-lin became renowned for his paintings of miners, the central motif of most of his works. In his later years, he moved to the US to live with Hung Chun-hsiung, who operated a restaurant in California.

In total, 62 cases of the 2019-nCoV virus have been identified in the city of Wuhan, where the virus appears to have originated. The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission reported the new cases in a statement yesterday. Most patients are experiencing mild symptoms, Li said, and no related cases have been found in more than 700 people who came into close contact with infected patients. “With the implementation of our various prevention and control measures, the epidemic can be prevented and controlled.”Although China has not yet reported cases outside of Wuhan, discussion about the coronavirus spreading to other Chinese cities has swelled on social media. A teenage male passenger with severe special pneumonia was reported on Saturday, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.

Staff writer, with CNATraffic on the upgraded Suhua Highway, which opened on Jan. 6, is likely to be heavily congested during the seven-day Lunar New Year holiday, the Directorate-General of Highways (DGH) said yesterday. On the southbound lanes of the highway heading toward Hualien, heavy traffic can be expected on Thursday and Saturday, as well as on Monday and Wednesday next week, the agency said in a statement. Traffic is expected peak on the southbound lanes on Saturday, with about 19,000 vehicles, it said, adding that the heaviest congestion should be between 5am and 5pm. On the northbound lanes, the worst congestion would likely be on Tuesday next week, the second to last day of the holiday, when about 22,000 vehicles are likely to be traveling in the direction of Suao Township (蘇澳), particularly between 8am and 8pm, the agency said. Only cars and buses are allowed on the upgraded highway, while motorcycles are permitted only on the section that runs through Renshui Tunnel (仁水隧道).

At state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan’s (CPC, 台灣中油) fuel stations, prices are to fall to NT$27.1 per liter for 92-octane unleaded, NT$28.6 per liter for 95-octane unleaded, NT$30.6 per liter for 98-octane unleaded and NT$25 per liter for premium diesel, effective today. CPC said that international oil prices dropped last week as tensions eased in the Middle East. CPC adjusts its fuel prices weekly based on changes in crude oil prices, using a weighted oil price formula composed of 70 percent Dubai crude and 30 percent Brent crude. To keep prices stable during the Lunar New Year holiday, CPC said that it would either retain or lower its fuel prices for the week starting on Monday next week. The company cited lower crude oil prices as a result of the US and China signing a “phase one” trade deal, higher commercial oil inventories in the US and abating tensions in the Middle East.

By Ann Maxon / Staff reporterA group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members known as “+1” yesterday called for a debate among party members on cross-strait policy. To facilitate discussion on the subject, “+1” has launched a Facebook group with the same name and invited party members and others to propose new ideas for the party’s cross-strait policy. While “+1” has more than 50 KMT members, the Facebook group has more than 30,000 members, Lo said. The Facebook group would hopefully also provide a place for the KMT’s chairperson candidates to share their visions regarding cross-strait policy and other issues, he said. He said that he strongly supports the idea of having a debate on the KMT’s cross-strait stance.

Current president Satoshi Tsunakawa, who was promoted in 2016 following an accounting scandal, would resign and become non-executive chairman from April, Toshiba said in a statement on Saturday. However, Toshiba is unable to confirm as much as ￥20 billion in sales at a subsidiary involving “suspicious transactions,” the electronics conglomerate said. An internal investigation found that some transactions at Toshiba IT-Services Corp, a wholly owned subsidiary of yet another unit called Toshiba Digital Services Corp, could not be confirmed, the company said in the statement. “The final impact on profit and revenue as well as facts relating to suspicious transactions are subject to further investigation,” it said. Toshiba Machine Co, an independent company that retains the former parent’s name and is the second-largest NuFlare stockholder, has said it would sell its 15.8 percent stake to Toshiba.

By Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporterApparel maker Makalot Industrial Co (聚陽) on Friday reported weaker-than-expected pretax profit for last quarter, dragged by weak sales growth and gross margin contraction. Makalot operates factories in Taiwan, China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines. For the whole of last year, revenue increased 13.03 percent to a record NT$27.05 billion from NT$23.93 billion a year earlier, Makalot said in a regulatory filing. Pretax profit grew 25.46 percent to NT$2.45 billion last year, the highest in four years and up from NT$1.95 billion in 2018, it said. Makalot shares closed 0.32 percent higher at NT$156 on Friday in Taipei trading.

Staff writer, with CNAFilipinos in Taipei yesterday donned colorful costumes to celebrate a Catholic festival, the Sinulog, which is observed annually in their home country on the third Sunday of January. More than 200 Catholics, mostly Filipinos, gathered at St Christopher’s Church for the festival, which takes the form of a ritual prayer-dance in honor of Senor Santo Nino — the Catholic title of the Child Jesus in the Philippines. The festival began in Cebu City in the 1980s and has since spread around the world in commemoration of Filipinos’ acceptance of Christianity, said Father Edward Pacquing, the parish priest. I have seen the Sinulog in parishes and chaplaincies for Filipinos in Milan, Rome and Australia,” he added. At this year’s festival in Taipei, five St Christopher’s Church groups performed the Sinulog ritual-prayer dance, each portraying Queen Juana holding a statue of the child Jesus as she danced with her subjects.

By Huang Hsin-po / Staff reporterThe Legislative Yuan is today expected to vote on a proposal to cut the Transitional Justice Commission’s budget by more than half. Following a series of cross-caucus negotiations, 40 budget proposals have yet to be approved, including one proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to cut the commission’s budget. During an initial review of the commission’s budget, KMT legislators Shen Chih-hwei (沈智慧) and John Wu (吳志揚) had proposed reducing its planned budget of NT$65.48 million to zero. However, after cross-caucus negotiations, KMT legislators withdrew most of the proposals they had made regarding the commission’s budget, leaving only two. They include a proposal to cut its personnel budget by NT$26.99 million and another to cut its budget for “recovering historical truth” by NT$8.97 million.

By Chen Wen-chan and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe Kaohsiung City Government on Saturday drew criticism from city residents for its use of a photograph of Taiwanese TV talk show host Li Jing (利菁) on the cover of a monthly publication. The publication should feature policies, development projects and tourism in the city, rather than an image of Li covered in sheer fabric, which is irrelevant and inappropriate, Liao said. Neither the magazine nor the celebrities who had been chosen to promote city tourism over the past few months represent local culture, New Power Party Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷) said. Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) has failed to promote culture in the city since he took office in December 2018, and turned it into a “cultural desert,” Huang said. The Kaohsiung Lantern Festival, held near the Love River, has been mocked for resembling a Buddhist assembly due to the design and presentation of religious lanterns, she said.

By Wang Jung-hsiang / Staff reporter, with CNALeaders of the campaign to recall Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) yesterday said that they would launch the second stage of the recall process on Wednesday next week, aiming to gather 300,000 signatures in 30 days. The Central Election Commission on Friday last week announced that a petition to recall Han had collected enough signatures to pass the threshold for the first step of the recall process. In the case of Kaohsiung, with an estimated 2.28 million eligible voters, this works out to be 22,800 or more signatures. In related news, the Kaohsiung City Government yesterday accused writer Ku Ling (苦苓) of slander. “Since Han took up the position of mayor, he has saddled the city with NT$400 million in debt,” Ku said.

By Jason Pan / Staff reporterOutgoing Control Yuan member Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) in a detailed post on his Pointed Pigtail (尖尾週記) blog on Saturday explained his reasons for resigning. Chen announced his resignation on Thursday, after Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) on Tuesday accused him of interfering in the judicial system. Hsu overly protected the judges, shielding them from investigations by the Control Yuan, Chen said. He resigned because he no longer knew why he was still fighting, and he could no longer push for judicial reform, Chen said. Separately yesterday, the Presidential Office said that the Control Yuan and Judicial Yuan would able to resolve any dispute based on the nation’s constitutional framework.

By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter, with CNATaipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), on Saturday said that the party’s rules for removing legislators-at-large only meet the lowest standards. The TPP won five legislator-at-large seats in the Jan. 11 elections, and is eligible to form a legislative caucus, which requires at least three legislators from the same party. The TPP on Saturday invited legislative watchdog Citizen’s Congress Watch (CCW) to educate the party’s five new legislators. The TPP, which was established by Ko in August last year, emerged as the country’s third-largest party after Saturday’s legislative elections. The New Power Party maintained its caucus with 1.1 million votes, or 7.8 percent of the political party vote, giving it three at-large seats.

AFP, LONDONBritain, a global leader in offshore wind energy, plans to make the sector one of the pillars of its transition to carbon neutrality in the next few decades. “There’s quite a consensus of support around offshore wind from the public and politics.”British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government pledged in its election manifesto to increase power from offshore wind from 10 gigawatts to 40 gigawatts this decade. Britain plans to favor the development of colossal offshore wind farms given the country’s relatively small land mass. The sector is also trying to account for the so-called “global cost” to the planet of building and running wind turbines. Offshore wind power had a record year last year, with the completion of projects off Taiwan, Britain, China and the Netherlands, among others.

Reuters, WASHINGTONThe financial sector should take rapid steps to address record or near-record inequality levels within countries that new research shows could be a harbinger of a new financial crisis, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday. A report by IMF staff showed that expanding financial services to more low-income households, women and small businesses could serve as a powerful lever in creating a more inclusive society, but the increasing complexity of the financial sector often wound up benefiting mainly wealthy people. The IMF would apply the lessons of the new research to its assessment and surveillance of financial sector stability, while focusing on bolstered financial literacy among less “sophisticated” populations, she said. However, the financial sector also had a key role to play, she said, citing research by IMF staff that showed a 2 to 3 percentage point difference in longer-term GDP growth between financially inclusive countries and their less inclusive peers. Georgieva said the IMF had previously estimated that global trade tensions would shave 0.8 percent, or US$700 billion, off international economic growth.