■ Media
Correspondents tout petition
The Taipei Foreign Correspondents' Club (TFCC) yesterday joined the international media community in supporting the Brussels Declaration on captured reporters in Iraq. Five reporters, Florence Aubenas and Hussein Hanoun (from French newspaper Liberation), and Mari Jeanne Ion, Sorin Dumitru Miscoci and Eduard Ovidiu Ohanesian were captured on Jan. 5 this year while on assignment in Iraq. Yesterday marked the 100th day they have been missing. On March 22, 40 executives and editors from European news media signed a declaration expressing solidarity with the hostages. A further 100 media workers have since added their names to the "Brussels Declaration." The TFCC agrees with the declaration's assertion that there can be no freedom without press freedom."No matter where they are located, in Iraq or elsewhere, reporters should be allowed to work without fear of attack, capture or reprisal," said James Peng, President of the TFCC. The TFCC has brought this issue to the attention of the Taiwanese media and has asked for their support of the declaration.
■ Crime
Marijuana grower arrested
A 47-year-old man who grew marijuana and sold it from his Taipei residence has been arrested, police said yesterday. Hundreds of marijuana seeds and more than 20 fully-grown plants were found, according to authorities. The man claimed he obtained the seeds from a friend in England. Police said the man, who is a member of a northern Taiwan drug ring, was growing the plants in special soil at his home in Hsindian, Taipei County. The district's weather conditions and humidity significantly sped up growth, so much so that the man was harvesting plants every three months. The man has been charged and taken into custody.
■ Health
Blood donation hits peak
Taiwanese showed their love by donating a total of 2.33 millions bags of blood (582,500 liters) last year, the highest contribution in 30 years, officials of the Executive Yuan's statistics office said yesterday. Officials said 1.12 million people donated blood 1.78 million times, a 4.9 percent and 2.6 percent increase, respectively, from the 2003 figures. The amount is also the highest since 1974, with every 1,000 Taiwanese people contributing 103 bags of blood. The officials said the number is an indication of the public's willingness to participate in charitable events. Male donors outnumbered females 1.12 million times to 0.66 million times, with students contributing the most, donating 431,000 times.
■ Environment
Pollution worries mayor
Acting Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said yesterday that he hopes the state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) will deliver on its promise to relocate a main refinery by 2015. Chen made the remarks in front of the Kaohsiung City Council after reviewing the soil and underground water samples collected from near the CPC's main refinery in Nantze district, Kaohsiung City. Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Shih-lung (黃石龍), who lives in the area, told Chen earlier in the day that residents of the district have long suffered from air and water pollution because of the refinery. He added that soil near the refinery has recently been discovered to be polluted. While examining the foul smelling soil and muddy underground water samples, Chen said that he is concerned about the effects of pollution.
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