TRANSPORTATION
Tolls suspended for holidays
The National Freeway Bureau announced that it would suspend freeway tolls at night for the Tomb Sweeping Festival holiday weekend. From April 2 to April 5, freeways will be toll-free between the hours of midnight and 7am to provide an incentive for travelers to drive during off-peak hours. The bureau said it was still considering other freeway control policies in its comprehensive traffic plan for the holiday weekend, but said that volume should be less than what was experienced between the Feb. 26 to Feb. 28 three-day weekend. The bureau attributed the severe traffic jams between Feb. 26 and Feb. 28 to the Taiwan Lantern Festival in Miaoli County. According to the bureau, freeway traffic volume for each day of the three-day Tomb Sweeping weekend last year reached 2.27 million, 2.3 million and 2.25 million respectively.
CULTURE
Taipei choir touring US
The Taipei Philharmonic Chamber Choir will perform in Boston, New York and Chicago from today until next Friday, a choir spokesman said yesterday. The spokesman also said that first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) has been invited to serve as the group’s honorary leader during the tour. The group has been invited by the American Choral Directors Association to perform in this year’s Biennial National Conference in Chicago, he said. The choir will kick off the tour with a performance at John Knowles Paine Concert Hall at Harvard University today, before taking the stage at New York’s Carnegie Hall on Sunday. It will give two recitals at Roosevelt University and the Chicago Symphony Hall on Wednesday and will round off its trip with a performance at Metea Valley High School, also in Chicago, next Friday.
E-COMMERCE
Snacks popular in China
Taiwan’s pineapple cakes, “iron eggs” and brown-sugar lollipops are listed as the three best-selling snacks on a leading shopping Web site in China, a local e-commerce company said yesterday. “The e-commerce environment is becoming more and more convenient, and online stock trading has become very common between China and Taiwan,” according to e-Dynamics, a Taiwanese company that cooperates with Taobao, a top Chinese shopping site, to sell Taiwanese products. “Taiwanese products are appealing to Chinese buyers,” the company said. “As long as the prices are reasonable, shoppers are usually willing to try new products.”
AGRICULTURE
Overseas crops planned
Taiwan is planning to follow in the footsteps of other countries by growing crops overseas to meet domestic demand amid soaring prices of raw materials, the agriculture agency said yesterday. The Council of Agriculture (COA) said it is considering countries in the region with which it could cooperate, citing Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam as possible candidates for growing crops such as corn, rice, soy beans and wheat. The overseas production plan, which will be implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is likely to be finalized within two months, according to the COA. Taiwan will also learn from the experiences of China, Japan and South Korea in growing crops overseas, it added. On the possible forms of cooperation, the COA said, the government could encourage Taiwanese companies to engage in overseas crop production by offering subsidies or asking state-run companies to work with private companies to produce the crops.
SOCIETY
Counseling available
Medication is not the only way to cure depression that is affecting a marriage, a health worker said yesterday ahead of International Women’s Day on Tuesday. A social worker surnamed Tung (董) at the psychiatric department of Taipei City Hospital’s Songde branch urged the public to make full use of government-reimbursed marriage and family counseling services. Learning how to cope with pressure and improve relationships between family members are also part of an effective treatment regimen for depression, Tung said. Therapeutic counseling, as opposed to prescription drugs, can help sufferers understand more about their own condition and help them find the root of the condition, she said. “Not many people know that counseling services are available under the national health insurance program. We want to send out the message that there are alternatives to drugs when it comes to battling depression,” she said.
SOCIETY
Bureau to host families
In celebration of the Children’s Day on April 4, the Ministry of the Interior’s Child Welfare Bureau will treat 100 families with at least three children — at least two of which must be under the age of 12 — to a free tour of the Taipei International Flora Expo on April 2, with not only the admission, but also transportation and lunch covered by the bureau, the bureau’s director-general Chang Hsiu-yuan (張秀鴛) announced at a press conference yesterday. She said that as the nation’s birthrate continues to drop, the event is part of the ministry’s plan to encourage people to have more children. Those who would like to sign up for the event should submit a 300-character essay on raising children and family values, Chang said, For details, visit www.cbi.gov.tw.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
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