■HEALTH
Breastfeeding bill drafted
Taiwan is to protect the right of nursing mothers to breastfeed in public, with hefty fines for those who try to stop them as part of a campaign to promote the practice, officials said yesterday. The government’s Bureau of Health Promotion is drafting a bill that would impose a penalty of up to NT$30,000 for anyone attempting to prevent breastfeeding in public, a bureau official said. “Public breastfeeding is a global trend and we want to ensure a better environment for mothers to nurse their babies,” said the official, who works for the bureau’s women and children affairs’ division. The bill will require final approval by the legislature. The rule came after an outcry over an earlier incident when five women were forced to leave a museum in Taipei after they were found to be openly nursing their babies. The bureau said it would air a commercial featuring mothers nursing their children in various public places, including a department store and a train station, to promote the concept.
■EVENTS
Pet Carnival planned
The fifth annual Pet Carnival will be held by the non-profit Animals Taiwan between Jan. 8 and Jan. 10 in Taipei. The event will run from 1pm to 9pm at the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Xinyi New Life Square in Xinyi District (信義), the event organizer said. The festivities will include performances and contests as selling pet-related items. More information can be found by visiting www.animalstaiwan.org or phoning (02) 2833-8820. Those interested in being volunteers at the Pet Carnival can also contact Animals Taiwan’s volunteer coordinator Lilian Lim at lilian@animalstaiwan.org.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to