MUSIC FESTIVAL
Dadaocheng traffic restricted
Traffic is to be restricted today ahead of a fireworks display as part of an annual music festival in Taipei’s Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area, the event’s Web site said. Vehicles will from 6pm to 11pm be prohibited from entering an area flanked to the north by Liangzhou Street, to the east by Yanping N Road and Tacheng Street, and to the south by Changan W and Zhongxiao W roads, the Web site said. During those hours, vehicles will also be prohibited from heading west on Minsheng W Road, Nanjing W Road and Changan W Road past their intersections with Chongqing N Road. Partial restrictions will be in effect for vehicles traveling south on Yanping N Road past the Minquan W Road intersection, the map showed. Vehicles will also be restricted from heading west on Minsheng W Road past the Chengde Road intersection from 8:40pm to 9:50pm, the Web site said. Taipei police said that the exit and entry ramps on the Huanhe Expressway and Civic Boulevard near the event would also see restrictions. The fireworks are to last from 8:15pm to 8:30pm.
MUSIC
Orchestra plays ‘Potter’ track
The Harry Potter Film Concert Series is coming to the National Concert Hall in Taipei from Sept. 27 to Sept. 29 and on Dec. 2, organizer Management of New Arts said. The Evergreen Symphony Orchestra and Taiwan National Choir are perform John Williams’ original score live while movies from the Harry Potter series are shown on a 12m screen, the organizer said in the statement. The orchestra is to accompany Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on Sept. 27 and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on Sept. 28 and Sept. 29, it said. On Dec. 2, the orchestra will accompany Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third film of the franchise, it added. Tickets for the concerts went on sale at noon yesterday on the ERA Ticket Web site, the organizer said.
TRANSPORTATION
Kaohsiung MRT to expand
Construction work on an extension of the Kaohsiung MRT connecting the Gangshan South and Gangshan MRT stations in western Kaohsiung could start before the end of the year, the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit Bureau said. Submissions from two bidders for the 1.46km section at the north end of the red line are to be reviewed by the end of the month, the bureau said. Bureau deputy head Wu Chia-chang (吳嘉昌) said it would evaluate the bids based on several criteria, stressing quality control rather than price. The extension is to cost an estimated NT$1.8 billion (US$58.4 million) and ground-level construction for the first phase of work is to take two years, the bureau said. The second phase is to see the installation of power supply and mechanical systems, as well as further extension of the line into the city’s Lujhu (蘆竹) and Hunei (湖內) districts, Wu said.
EARTHQUAKES
Magnitude 4.8 hits Nantou
A magnitude 4.8 earthquake jolted central Taiwan at 6:09pm yesterday, according to the Central Weather Bureau. The hypocenter of the earthquake was about 34.6km east of Nantou County Hall at a depth of 16.8km, the bureau’s Seismology Center said. The intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in the county’s Guosing Township (國姓), where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. Some areas in Taichung, Changhua and Chiayi could also feel the earthquake, with intensities of 2 to 3.
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