■ ARTS
Hakka musical to debut
The first Broadway-style Hakka musical -- My Daughter's Wedding -- is scheduled to debut at Taipei's National Theater next month. The musical, produced by the Taipei National University of the Arts, is based on William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, director David Jiang (蔣維國) said. It tells the story of a successful career woman who is skeptical of love and fears marriage, Jiang said. No man dares approach her because of her rudeness -- except one, who tries to win her heart by unusual means. "The musical itself is quite Western and Broadway-like," Jiang said. "But we blended many Hakka elements to make it modern and classical at the same time -- and that's what makes it so unique."
■ CRIME
NIA to improve detention
The Ministry of Interior's National Immigration Agency (NIA) will improve facilities and personnel at its detention centers to prevent detained illegal immigrants from escaping, an agency official said on Friday. The agency will replace dilapidated iron fences, update security systems and monitor illegal immigrants' communication records to keep better control of their movements, the official said, adding that the National Police Agency has appointed 120 people in alternative military service to help cover night shifts at detention centers to increase the frequency of patrols. The immigration agency has also increased the capacity at the detention centers in Kaohsiung City and Tainan County and plans to set up new centers in Nantou County and Kaohsiung County to ease overcrowding.
■ CRIME
`Sexcapade' verdict rendered
Two defendants in former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Hsien-chou's (黃顯洲) "sexcapade" case were given their final verdicts by the Supreme Court on Friday evening. Chan Hui-hua (詹惠華) received a seven-year-and-six-month sentence while Yu Hung-tsan (游洪贊) was sentenced to six years in jail. The pair was found guilty for kidnapping and robbing Huang. The event in question began when Huang reported to police that he had been robbed, kidnapped and forced to participate in a sex party in a hotel room at Taipei's Grand Hyatt Hotel on Dec. 27, 2001. Chan called Huang on Dec. 26 and asked to meet on Dec. 27 at the hotel to discuss her mother's money problems. As Huang arrived at the hotel room, Chan and Yu called two Chinese prostitutes for a sex party.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Bird poachers on notice
The Pingtung District Prosecutors' Office, in conjunction with the Kenting National Park Administration Office, Pingtung forest rangers and police, has launched a protection campaign for wild birds in an effort to curb illegal bird-hunting, officials said yesterday. Rewards of up to NT$100,000 will be given to anyone providing information on such offenses, while convicted poachers will face prison, the prosecutors said. Every year in fall and winter, large numbers of migratory birds such as brown shrikes, Chinese sparrow-hawks and gray-faced buzzards, fly in from the north to the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) to feed and rest, the Kenting park office said. However, over the past decades, the birds -- especially the brown shrikes and gray-faced buzzards -- have become targets for local poachers. In a nod to the old adage that poachers make the best gamekeepers, the prosecutors have reinforced measures to crack down on poaching, which includes using reformed poachers as watchmen.
REPORT: Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining loitering munitions matching the AeroVironment Switchblade 300 or the Anduril Altius-600, ‘Foreign Policy’ said Taiwan is seeking US-made kamikaze drones in an apparent concession to pressure from Washington to focus on asymmetric capabilities to defeat or deter a Chinese attack, Foreign Policy said in a report on Wednesday. Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining AeroVironment Switchblade loitering munitions or other devices with similar capabilities, it said, citing four sources familiar with the matter commenting on condition of anonymity. The Switchblade 300 is a tube-launched drone designed for attacking ground troops, while its larger sibling, the Switchblade 600, could be used to destroy tanks and entrenched troops. Ukraine has utilized both systems extensively in its fight against
Police officers yesterday morning apprehended the prime suspect of a triple homicide case, after raiding the suspect’s hideout in Taichung. They transported the suspect to New Taipei City for questioning and recorded his statement last night. The suspect, identified as a 24-year-old man surnamed Chang (張), is believed to have used his hands to strangle his wife, surnamed Chen (陳), 29, along with his three-year-old son from a previous marriage and his wife’s mother, 69. The three dead bodies were wrapped in blankets when they were discovered inside their apartment in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) on Saturday. Chang was holding a
Hungarian Member of Parliament Tompos Marton said he considers Taiwan to be a better alternative to China as a strategic partner. Marton, who is the vice president of the opposition Momentum Party, made the remarks in an interview with the Central News Agency on Sunday. He draped a Republic of China flag across his shoulders to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the capital city, Budapest, on Thursday last week, and openly voiced support for Taiwan on social media. He said in the interview that he wanted to remind the world that there were alternatives to China, and that “Taiwan has
A female physician at New Taipei City’s Shuang Ho Hospital was bullied and made to work for 32 consecutive hours by a senior colleague while pregnant before later having a miscarriage, an internal investigation found, the hospital said on Monday. The perpetrator has been removed from his post, the hospital said. The attending physician in the hospital’s Medical Imaging Department, identified by the pseudonym Y, earlier on Monday told reporters that she had been bullied by a male senior colleague who arranged shifts in her department. In January, shortly after she became pregnant, Y asked the department director if she could avoid overnight