SOCIETY
Poo collectors may win big
New Taipei City (新北市) will run an innovative scheme to keep its streets clean by encouraging residents to collect dog excrement for a chance to win gold. Starting in July, the city government will offer residents who collect canines’ waste the chance to enter a lucky draw, local media reported yesterday. Those taking part in the scheme will be given one lottery ticket in exchange for the dog waste they collect for a chance to enter the draw, which has a top prize of a gold ingot worth NT$60,000, it said. The scheme ran for the first time in June last year and proved a success attracting more than 20,000 participants, according to the city government. A lucky draw was conducted in November last year in which three prizes of gold ingots, each with different worth, were given away.
AGRICULTURE
Yunlin bird flu probed
All chickens at a farm in Yunlin County were culled after it was confirmed to have been hit by a highly pathogenic form of the H5N2 avian influenza virus, agricultural officials said yesterday. The farm and surrounding area were disinfected after 14,000 chickens from the farm were culled, officials from the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said. A clinical investigation and epidemiological sampling within a radius of 3km of the farm would continue, but all fowl in neighboring areas have so far been found to be healthy and no suspected avian flu cases were reported, they said. A Yunlin agricultural official said on Friday that more than 13 million chickens are currently being raised on more than 900 farms in the county. The first outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N2 bird flu was recorded on Jan. 9 at a farm in Changhua County. Since then, two other egg and poultry farms in Changhua and one each in Greater Tainan and Pingtung County have been hit by a similar virus.
CULTURE
Hakka park opens in Tongluo
The Hakka Cultural Park Miaoli was officially inaugurated in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) yesterday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Premier Sean Chen (陳冲), Hakka Affairs Council Minister Huang Yu-chen (黃玉振) and Miaoli County Commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻). The establishment of the park makes it the second central government-run Hakka cultural park in the country. The other one is in Greater Kaohsiung. According to the council, the Hakka Cultural Park Miaoli is not merely a park, but rather, it is part of the Taiwan Hakka Culture Development Center, which displays elements of Hakka culture not only native to Taiwan, but also from around the world.
IMMIGRATION
Illegals feted to Mother’s Day
Illegal immigrants being held at a National Immigration Agency detention center in Nantou County celebrated Mother’s Day with a local saxophone ensemble yesterday. Officials at the center, who organized the concert, also presented carnations to more than 60 mothers waiting to be sent back to their native countries. The band, based in Greater Taichung, played Taiwanese music and folk songs from Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries. The detainees, including two women who are being held there with small children, said they were moved by the songs and the kindness of Taiwanese. As the final stop in Taiwan, the detention center tries to provide the detainees a good diet, a pleasant environment and entertainment to ease their anxiety before being deported, officials said.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
The Civil Aviation Administration yesterday said that it is considering punishments for China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines for making hard landings and overworking their cabin crew when the nation was hit by Typhoon Kong-rey in October last year. The civil aviation authority launched an investigation after media reported that many airlines were forced to divert their flights to different airports or go around after failing to land when the typhoon affected the nation on Oct. 30 and 31 last year. The agency reviewed 503 flights dispatched by Taiwanese airlines during those two days, as well as weather data, flight hours
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Three people have had their citizenship revoked after authorities confirmed that they hold Chinese ID cards, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday. Two of the three people were featured in a recent video about Beijing’s “united front” tactics by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), including Su Shi-en (蘇士恩), who displayed a Chinese ID card in the video, and taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲), who mentioned he had obtained a Chinese ID card in a telephone call with Chen, Liang told the council’s weekly news conference. Lee, who reportedly worked in
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