ENTERTAINMENT
New Year’s Eve set to go off
Revelers across the nation have a wide choice of fireworks displays and concerts to ring in the New Year. Taipei is set to host the nation’s best-known annual countdown at Civic Square outside Taipei City Hall, with singers Jam Hsiao (蕭敬騰) and Show Lo (羅志祥) leading the list of celebrities taking the stage before the fireworks spectacular. Fireworks are then set to be launched over almost four minutes from nearby Taipei 101, concluding at midnight tomorrow. Greater Kaohsiung is to host major countdown parties at the Dream Mall and E-Da World theme park, while in Greater Tainan a New Year’s Eve countdown is to be held at the High Speed Rail station that is to feature singers Kenji Wu (吳克群) and rapper Dog-G (大支). Greater Taichung’s main celebrations are to be held at the National Taiwan University of Physical Education and Sport and Taichung Fongyuan District Stadium. They are to feature singers Jeannie Hsieh (謝金燕) and William Wei (韋禮安).
COMMUNICATIONS
Poll finds 4G users unhappy
Fourth-generation (4G) mobile network subscribers are dissatisfied with the content offered by wireless carriers despite the fast-growing user pool, a survey of 4G smartphone users found. The poll, conducted by the Innovative Digi Tech-Enabled Applications and Services Institute, found that 4G users now exceed 3 million following the May launch of the service. Of the users polled, 47.9 percent of subscribers use 4G for more than three hours per day, mainly to watch videos or listen to music. However, only 18.3 percent were satisfied with the diversity of 4G value-added services offered, while 25 percent were satisfied with 4G coverage. The poll was conducted from Oct. 30 to Nov. 9, with 1,071 valid samples collected.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
Taiwan’s Li Yu-hsiang performs in the men’s singles figure skating short program at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, on Tuesday. Li finished 24th with a score of 72.41 to advance to Saturday’s free skate portion of the event. He is the first Taiwanese to qualify for the free skate of men’s singles figure skating at the Olympics since David Liu in 1992.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday held a ceremony marking the delivery of its 11th Anping-class offshore patrol vessel Lanyu (蘭嶼艦), saying it would boost Taiwan’s ability to respond to Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. Ocean Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Chung-Lung (張忠龍) presided over the CGA event in the Port of Kaoshiung. Representatives of the National Security Council also attended the event. Designed for long-range and protracted patrol operations at sea, the Lanyu is a 65.4m-long and 14.8m-wide ship with a top speed of 44 knots (81.5kph) and a cruising range of 2,000 nautical miles (3704km). The vessel is equipped with a
A KFC branch in Kaohsiung may be fined between NT$60,000 and NT$200 million (US$1,907 and US$6.37 million), after a customer yesterday found an entire AAA battery inside an egg tart, the Kaohsiung Department of Health said today. The customer was about to microwave a box of egg tarts they had bought at the fast-food restaurant’s Nanzih (楠梓) branch when they checked the bottom and saw a dark shadow inside one of them, they said in a Threads post. The customer filmed themself taking the egg tart apart to reveal an entire AAA battery inside, which apparently showed signs of damage. Surveillance footage showed
RSS