■ Seismology
Two quakes rattle locals
Two moderate earthquakes shook parts of the country yesterday. The first quake, measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale, jolted Chiayi County at 6:16am. The second tremor struck at 9:33am and measured 4.7 on the Richter scale, shaking the island of Lanyu (Orchid Island) off the coast of Taitung County. Its epicenter was around 26km northwest of Lanyu, originating 16km below sea level. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, officials said. A quake with a magnitude of 5.8 shook the nation on May 1, killing two Hualien County residents and injuring a Canadian tourist.
■ Population
Birth rate drops again
The nation's birth rate has continued to drop, with less than 10 births per 1,000 people recorded for the 12 months ending last month, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Ministry officials said that the annual birth rate fell to a record low of 10.06 births per 1,000 people last year and has continued to fall, registering 9.32 births per 1,000 people last month. The officials noted that more than 17,000 babies were born last month. Hsinchu County had the highest birth rate with 13.2 births per 1,000 people, followed by Hsinchu City at 12.68 births. Kaohsiung City had the lowest rate at 7.61 births, followed by Keelung City with 8.08 births.
■ Diplomacy
Dignitaries fall ill, recover
Tuvaluan Prime Minister Saufatu Sopoanga and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara have recovered from bouts of illness they suffered while visiting the country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Ministry spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦) said that Sopoanga, who is allergic to squid, became ill after eating food containing the seafood on Thursday and later checked into National Taiwan University Hospital. He was released from the hospital yesterday morning. Ishihara, who was unable to attend the banquet following Thursday's presidential inauguration because of illness, paid a scheduled visit to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday, Shih said.
■ Health
Hualien attacks smoking
Hualien County has launched an anti-smoking campaign. The eastern county has the highest percentage of smokers aged over 15 in the country, a county official said yesterday. Citing results from an investigation conducted in 2002 by the Department of Health, the official said that 34.5 percent of people aged over 15 smoke, while 31.5 percent smoke every day. In an effort to stem tobacco use among Hualien teenagers, the county's health bureau will target second-hand smoke in public areas, homes and the workplace. Anti-smoking activities have also been held at schools, the official said. According to the department's report, people under the age of 30, and women in particular, are increasingly becoming addicted to smoking, despite the fact that the overall number of smokers is dropping every year. The investigation also found that as many as 46 percent of the nation's teenagers have tried smoking.
■ Education
Lee Yuan-tseh in Paraguay
Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) is scheduled to arrive in Asuncion on Monday for a four-day visit promoting academic exchanges between Taiwan and Paraguay. Lee is scheduled to deliver a speech and will hold a roundtable meeting with 24 university and college presidents. He will also receive an honorary doctorate from a university.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods