ENTERTAINMENT
Cirque comes to Taipei
A theatrical production that combines the music of pop singer Michael Jackson with the acrobatic moves of Cirque du Soleil will be staged in Taipei in June, offering fans a new sensory experience, the organizers said yesterday. The 105-minute long show, produced by Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil, uses more than 40 songs by the “King of Pop,” as well as his visuals and dance moves, said the United Daily News Group, which organized the event. “We hope audiences will be able to experience the charm of the legendary singer at the show,” said Zoya Chou, a member of the organizing team. Cirque du Soleil artistic director Tara Young and dancer Mansour Abdessadok will arrive in Taiwan tomorrow to promote the show, the news group said. The Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour will be held at Taipei Arena from June 28 to June 30.
NATIONAL DEFENSE
Air force denies Ma escort fail
The air force on Saturday dismissed a report that its jet fighters had failed in a mission to escort President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on a flight between Taiwan proper and Matsu. One of the two Mirage 2000-5 fighters originally assigned to the mission returned to base after a warning light appeared on its instrument panel, the air force said in a statement, adding that at the same time, another Mirage fighter was deployed to take over. The air force stressed that there was no gap in the escort service and that the mission was completed successfully. The statement was issued in response to a report in the Chinese-language United Evening News on Saturday that one of the Mirage jets in Ma’s escort detail had returned to base after a warning light appeared on its instrument panel and that the third plane dispatched to take over had also encountered some problems. A safety check found no major problems with the first Mirage despite the warning light, the air force said.
SPORT
Local to run toughest race
Taiwanese ultramarathon runner Tommy Chen (陳彥博) left for Canada yesterday to take part in a 700km race in Canada’s freezing Yukon territory early next month. Chen said his goal is to complete the race safely because the average temperature on the route of the Yukon Arctic Ultra is minus-20?C to minus-30?C, which prevents many competitors from finishing the race. The lowest temperature recorded on the trail was minus 62?C, he said. Checkpoints will be set up along the trail and runners who fail to reach them within a required time will be disqualified, he said. Before leaving Chen said that in addition to clothes and medicine, he is taking red envelopes with lucky charms and spring couplets to give to the other runners in celebration of the Lunar New Year. This year’s Yukon Race will begin on Feb. 3 and end on Feb. 16. It is often called the toughest ultramarathon in the world.
SOCIETY
Matsu population booms
The population of Matsu recorded the strongest growth of any region in the nation last year, after island residents voted to allow the nation’s first casino to be built on the island, government figures show. The population in Lienchiang County (連江), Matsu’s administrative center, grew 11.24 percent last year to 11,310 residents, the highest growth in the nation, the Ministry of the Interior reported on Saturday. This follows the approval of a referendum last year to allow casino projects to be built on the island, hoping to attract Chinese tourists and improve local infrastructure.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching