Sun, Dec 23, 2018 page3

• Taiwan News Quick Takes

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  ENTERTAINMENT

  Chthonic barred from HK

  Taiwanese metal band Chthonic, which advocates independence, yesterday said that it had to cancel a show in Hong Kong after failing to get visas in time. “The Hong Kong government has kept delaying and has yet to issue work visas... We have no choice but to cancel the show,” Chthonic said in a statement on Facebook. Denise Ho (何韻詩), a pro-democracy Cantopop star who invited Chthonic to perform at a festival, said on Facebook that immigration officials had not responded to the applications, which were filed last month. The Web site for Hong Kong’s immigration authorities states that work visas can take up to four weeks to process, but Ho said that music acts usually get approved within a week. “This is purely an exchange of music. What is there to be afraid of?” Ho wrote. The band was founded in 1995 by Freddy Lim (林昶佐), who in 2016 won a seat as a New Power Party legislator.

  AGRICULTURE

  Pig farmers to get subsidies

  The government is to subsidize small-scale pig farmers who use pigswill as feed, but lack the equipment to properly treat food waste, to help them transition to crop-based feed in an effort to guard against African swine fever, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday. After a closed-door meeting with hog farmers in Yunlin County, Tsai said that the subsidy would become available to operators who lack adequate heating equipment to treat leftover waste. The potential spread of the disease from China is a major issue, as it could severely hurt the pig farming industry, Tsai said, adding that farmers must make a collective effort to reduce the risk. Acting Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲), who accompanied Tsai, said that swill must be heated to 90°C for an hour to kill all pathogens. Yunlin County has about 1.45 million hogs, the largest number of any municipality, Yunlin County Commissioner Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) said.

  ELECTIONS

  Date for by-elections set

  Legislative by-elections for seats in Tainan, and Changhua and Kinmen counties vacated by winners in last month’s nine-in-one elections are to be held on March 16, the Central Election Commission said. The seat representing Tainan’s second electoral district is to be contested after it was vacated by Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲), who won the city’s mayoral race. In Changhua’s first electoral district, Wang Hui-mei (王惠美) gave up her seat after she was elected Changhua county commissioner. Yang Cheng-wu (楊鎮浯) is leaving the Legislative Yuan after winning the race for Kinmen county commissioner. According to the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), a by-election has to be held within three months of a legislative seat being vacated when more than one year remains of the term to be served.

  IMMIGRATION

  Naturalization data released

  Sixty-five highly qualified foreigners have become naturalized citizens over the past two years since an amendment to the Nationality Act (國籍法) took effect, the Ministry of the Interior said on Wednesday. Fifty-two foreign professionals received Republic of China citizenship this year and 13 last year without having to renounce other nationalities after the amended act came into effect on Dec. 21, 2016, Department of Household Registration Deputy Director Cheng Hsin-wei (鄭信偉) said. Thirty-two work in education, with 29 teaching at universities, Cheng said, adding that the lion’s share were from the US.
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