■CULTURE
Hakka video contest held
The Council for Hakka Affairs is inviting people to take part in this year’s creative Hakka music video competition. First held in 2005, the annual contest aims to promote Hakka pop culture and connect the younger generation with Hakka culture, event spokesman and Hakka actor Chang Shan-wei (張善為) said at a press conference in Taipei yesterday. The theme for this year’s contest is Hakka children’s songs. Contestants are to create music videos for songs announced on the event’s Web site. All works will be judged for creativity, elements of Hakka culture and visual effect. The winner will be awarded a NT$300,000 cash prize. For more information, visit www.hakkamv.com.tw.
■AGRICULTURE
Pig farmers ‘stealing’ scraps
The price of kitchen leftovers, which hog farms use to feed their stock, has risen to a point where some farmers are “stealing” it, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official said yesterday. As food prices skyrocket in the international market because of poor harvests caused by bad weather, the price of kitchen scraps is now NT$1,000 per tonne compared with NT$300 to NT$600 last year, Lin Mao-yuan (林茂原) of the EPA’s Environmental Police Unit said. In some cities and counties, the price could reach NT$2,000 or more, he said. The EPA collects about 1,900 tonnes of leftovers per day, and last year the total volume collected was some 663,000 tonnes, which was used as hog feed. With the price of leftover food on the rise, thefts have been reported in Taichung and Hsinchu counties, where pig farmers have been observed “cleaning up” slop collected by EPA personnel for shipment to recycling companies, Lin said.
■HEALTH
Betel nut addicts kick habit
A campaign in Hualien County to help betel nut addicts kick the habit has succeeded in guiding 145 people out of a total of 276 who took part in the program to quit, the county’s health bureau said yesterday. As of the end of last month, 145 addicts had given up betel nuts entirely since the campaign’s launch in July last year, bureau officials said. The remaining 131 betel nut chewers in the program now consume an average of 4.61 nuts per day, from 41.08 in the past, the officials said. A study conducted by the bureau from 2003 to 2006 showed 35,823 county residents chewed the addictive nuts, with their daily consumption averaging 16.8 nuts. The county’s annual consumption of betel nuts is estimated at 216 million nuts.
■DIPLOMACY
Taipei group visits Shanghai
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday led a delegation of Taipei City government officials on a five-day visit to Shanghai. Hau, the nation’s first elected municipal chief to visit China, is visiting Shanghai to witness the signing of an agreement to confirm Taipei’s participation in World Expo Shanghai 2010, scheduled for May 1 to Oct. 31, 2010. He is scheduled to meet Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng (韓正) on Thursday to witness the signing of the agreement. Hau will visit the Shanghai Wild Animal Park, where he hopes to gain a better understanding of how Shanghai zoo authorities take care of pandas. Hau will also visit a project aimed at developing Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport into a multiple transportation hub. He will also meet Taiwanese business leaders to encourage them to repatriate some of their overseas investment and to locate their R&D centers and business headquarters in Taipei.
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei