ENTERTAINMENT
Madonna coming to Taipei?
“Queen of Pop” Madonna is scheduled to hold her first concert in Taiwan on Feb. 4 next year at the Taipei Arena, according to a promotional poster that was accidentally posted at a 7-Eleven store. Tickets for the “Rebel Heart Tour” will go on sale at 11am on Sept. 26 at http://ticket.7net.com.tw/ or at the 7-Eleven ibon kiosks, according to the information on the poster. A photo of the poster was uploaded to the Madonna Taiwan Facebook fan page on Sunday. When asked about the poster, concert promoter Live Nation Taiwan said it would not disclose nor confirm any information about the concert until today. Local media reported that the poster was accidentally posted earlier than scheduled by 7-Eleven employees. Rumors about a Madonna concert in Taiwan started circulating last month.
ENVIRONMENT
Spoonbill festival planned
Taijiang National Park in Tainan will hold a six-month festival featuring the black-faced spoonbill that will run from October to March, when the endangered bird species migrates to Taiwan for winter, park authorities said on Thursday. Tainan is one of the most important wintering sites for the black-faced spoonbill, accounting for more than 65 percent of the global population. Every year, more than 1,000 of the birds are recorded in the park. The festival is scheduled to start with an exposition on Sept. 26. In addition to an exhibition, there will be games, dramas, DIY activities and quizzes. The festival is set to feature a different theme each month, with various activities such as bird watching and bicycle riding. Those interested in the activities can register to take part via the park’s official Web site two weeks prior to the start of the events.
SPORTS
Marathon registration starts
The Taipei Marathon, previously known as the Taipei Fubon Marathon, is now open for online registration, with the number of runners limited to 27,000, the organizer said yesterday. If more than 27,000 people register, participation is to be decided by drawing lots, the Taipei City Department of Sports said. It is the first time that the drawing of lots has been introduced as a means of selecting runners for the annual marathon. Another change this year is that the event has been renamed the Taipei Marathon as it no longer has a naming rights sponsor, which used to be Fubon Financial Holdings Co. In addition, there will only be three competition categories this year: full marathon (7,000 competitors), half-marathon (12,000 competitors) and 10km run (8,000 competitors). The marathon is to start at 6:30am on Dec. 20.
CRIME
‘Lotto’ robber arrested
A man who tried to rob a bank to buy tickets for the Super Lotto that were to be drawn later yesterday was arrested shortly after his heist attempt failed, police said. The Super Lotto’s jackpot now stands at NT$2.9 billion (US$88.6 million) after 40 draws over a span of nearly five months have failed to produce a winner — the lottery’s longest-ever consecutive winless streak. The 40-year-old odd-job man, surnamed Lin (林), went to First Bank’s Rueifang (瑞芳) branch in New Taipei City, brandished a knife and told the guard he wanted NT$100,000, police investigators said. When the guard ignored him, Lin went to the bank’s counter and took a NT$1,000 note, whereupon the clerk punched the alarm bell. At least 15 police officers responded from the police station, which is only 500m from the bank, and overcame Lin in less than a minute.
LEISURE
Zoos to swap deer, pandas
The Shoushan Zoo in Kaohsiung on Sunday said it had reached an agreement with the Chengdu Zoo in China’s Sichuan Province to exchange a pair of Formosan sika deer for two Chinese pandas. The exchange is expected to enrich the diversity of species at the Shoushan Zoo, which has been seeking to do so, but has been limited by its funding and space, Shoushan Zoo director Chuang Hsuan-chih (莊絢智) said. The zoo, which attracts about 1 million visitors each year, said it is hoping to attract private investment to expand the zoo complex. The zoo expects it would be at least two years before the exchange can take place given the complex process and paperwork.
AGRICULTURE
Taiwan pledges Haiti cash
Taiwan has committed US$4.6 million in funding for agricultural cooperation projects in Haiti this year, the nation’s embassy in Haiti said. Ambassador Peter Hwang (黃再求) pledged the funds to Haitian Minister of Agriculture Fresner Dorcin at a ceremony on Friday. Dorcin expressed appreciation for Taiwan’s long-term support and contributions to Haiti’s agricultural development, adding that agricultural cooperation projects over the past 43 years have been fruitful. The embassy said that Taiwan’s agricultural technical mission in Haiti is to manage the US$4.6 million fund and the agricultural projects for which it is to be used. It said that funding for agricultural cooperation projects in Haiti has risen from US$100,000 in 1972, contributing greatly to the nation’s agricultural output and development, and improving the life of local farmers.
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