MUSIC
A-mei’s shows to be cheaper
To celebrate the 15th year of her singing career, pop diva Chang Hui-mei (張惠妹), better known as A-mei (阿妹), will perform six concerts in a row at lower-than-normal ticket prices in Taipei starting from March 30 next year. A-mei began her career on the first weekend of this month in Sichuan Province, China, followed by several more concerts throughout China. Before the march 30 show in Taipei, the 39-year-old singer will also give concerts in the US, Canada and Singapore. Although the production costs of the Taipei concerts will exceed NT$107 million (US$3.6 million), ticket prices will range from NT$600 to NT$2,800, low compared with the typical range of NT$600 to NT$6,000 for other well-known singers, the organizer said.
HEALTH
DOH to donate equipment
The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday pledged to donate customized medical equipment to the Solomon Islands, one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, to help combat high maternal and newborn death rates in the South Pacific nation. Deputy Minister of Health Chiang Hung-che (江宏哲) said the donation was to improve the public health situation in the Solomon Islands, which are on par with Taiwan 40 years ago, when it had a high death rate for mothers and newborns. According to data from 2005, the maternal mortality rate stood at 236 deaths per 100,000 live births, while the newborn mortality rate was 12 per 1,000 live births, Chiang said, adding that the autoclaves being sent to the ally were designed to suit the needs of island residents that often lack electricity. The high-pressure instruments have been adapted to generate power from firewood and coconut shells, he said.
EDUCATION
‘E-schoolbags’ to be used
Taipei will introduce “e-schoolbags” to more students starting next year as part of its plan to promote cloud-based learning, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday. Hau said the government would introduce e-schoolbags — tablet PCs or portable e-readers that store teaching materials and allow students to search the Internet in class — to 150 elementary and junior high schools in Taipei in a three-year program starting next year. The initiative is a follow-up of a pilot program launched by the Ministry of Education two years ago in Zhongyi and Dahu elementary schools. Hau said that because the trials went well and tablet computer technology has matured, the program would be extended to 30 more schools next year, 50 more schools in 2013 and another 70 schools in 2014. Hau said the program would also establish an electronic database of teaching materials.
CRIME
Drug cases drop 0.73%
Drug cases in Taiwan dropped slightly in the first seven months of the year, but those related to “second-degree” drugs were on the rise, according to a latest report released by the Ministry of the Interior. The police reported a total of 27,900 cases related to illegal drugs, a 0.73 percent decrease from a year earlier. Drugs categorized as “second-degree,” including opium poppy, marijuana and amphetamine, accounted for 58.53 percent of the total cases — the second consecutive year that they have topped harder drugs. Illegal use of these drugs has increased for the past three years, climbing by 3.29 percent in the January to July period compared with same time last year, the report showed. First-degree drugs, including heroin, opium, cocaine and morphine, were the second-most common types of drugs used. New Taipei City (新北市) reported the most drug cases in the country at 4,776, followed by Greater Kaohsiung and Taoyuan County at 4,358 and 2,906 respectively.
TRAVEL
Travel alert on India
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday raised an “orange” travel alert over Sikkim in northeastern India following a massive magnitude 6.9 earthquake that hit its capital, Gangtok, on Sunday. An orange alert, the -second-highest on the country’s four-color coded advisory system, meant people should avoid non-essential trips or be extremely vigilant if they had to visit these areas. An orange alert for West Bengal and Bihar in India and Nepal that has been in place since September remains, it said. People in need of help are urged to contact the ministry’s representative offices at 91-9810502610 in India or its emergency center at 0800-085-095, it said.
WEATHER
Cooler weather ahead
The year’s first northeastern winds swept down across the nation yesterday and could drive temperatures down to 21oC in the north, the Central Weather Bureau. A trademark of autumn weather patterns, the seasonal winds are expected to send temperatures lower by at least 4oC in most areas by Friday, the bureau said. “As we see more seasonal winds blowing under the influence of a Siberian high pressure system, a typical autumn weather pattern is near,” forecaster Lin Pin-yu (林秉煜) said. “Temperature differences between night and day will become more acute.” In northern and northeastern Taiwan, which are expected to be most affected by the seasonal weather, temperatures are expected to fall to between 21oC and 29oC, compared with a recent range of 25oC to 34oC.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
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,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift