■ Philately
New stamps launch exhibit
Chunghwa Post Co. will issue new stamps to mark the 18th Asian International Stamp Exhibition, which will be held from Aug. 19 to Aug. 24 at the Taipei World Trade Center, a spokesman said. In addition to two sets of stamps featuring Taiwan's natural scenery and cultural heritage issued earlier this year, Chunghwa Post will issue a third set on Aug. 19 featuring flora and fauna species to coincide with the opening of the exhibition. Between Aug. 20 and Aug. 24, the spokesman said, a specially designed set of stamps will also be issued every day. The exhibition is expected to attract 100,000 visitors, the spokesman said. The Formosan black bear was chosen in a public competition to be the event's mascot, while the Taipei 101 skyscraper has been designated to represent the event.
■ Transport
Souvenir tickets on sale
To celebrate the Taipei MRT system's 2 billionth customer, the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC) is selling 3,500 MRT Souvenir Tickets, beginning with an online presale of 1,000 tickets today on the MRT Web site. The sale starts on Saturday next week and lasts until Aug. 24 at MRT souvenir shops at Taipei Main Station and 11 other stations, including Tamsui, Shipai, Jiantan, Zhongshan, Guting, Gongguan, Nanshijiao, Kunyang, Taipei City Hall, Zhongxiao Fuxing and Xinpu stations. The price for the souvenir ticket is NT$300. The TRTC said that the online presale was to begin at 9am today with a purchase limit of two tickets per person. The ticket can be used twice and can be retained after it is used up. The valid period of the ticket is four months. For more information, see the TRTC Web site at www.trtc.com.tw.
■ Society
Oranges get diet test
Kukeng (古坑) township in Yunlin County is trying to recruit 30 obese volunteers to undergo tests to see whether green oranges grown in the township can help them shed some weight. The township government announced that the volunteers -- 15 men and 15 women -- will be given a recipe for making beverages using green oranges as the main ingredient. Examinations will be conducted after one month to see if the green oranges are effective in helping the volunteers lose weight. A spokesman for the township government claimed that freshly squeezed juice from green oranges, when mixed with yogurt, makes a delicious drink ideal for weight watchers. Although the Department of Health has expressed doubts over the claims, the township still hopes to use the tests to prove the effects of the fruit in helping obese people to lose weight.
■ Tourism
Taipei chooses new logo
The Taipei City Government will use the logo "Taipei Wonderful (台北玩得瘋)" to attract both local and foreign tourists, city government officials said. According to Bureau of Transportation officials, the logo was chosen through an online competition in which 1,282 people participated. The author of the logo, Hsieh Yao-cho (謝曜州), who gained 6,056 votes from an online poll among 17,000 voters, will receive a prize of NT$10,000 (US$314) worth of gift vouchers for a department store. The officials said the Bureau of Transportation will also hold a lucky draw among the people who participated in the vote, and will inform the 1,200 winners via e-mail.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods