■ Foreign affairs
MOFA issues warning
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday reminded the nation people not to be deceived by faked "single status certificates" issued by the Cambodian government, as the counterfeits might be prevent their spouses from being allowed to apply for citizenship. MOFA spokesman Michel Lu (呂慶龍) told a press conference that the ministry has detected a number of faked certificates lately. "While dealing with people's marriage registrations, we found that many `single status certificates' supposedly issued by the Cambodian government were of doubtful authenticity. We then asked our representatives in Ho Chi Minh City to investigate this affair, ending in confirming the suspicion," Lu said. Lu said that most certificates from the Cambodian government were fake.
■ Accidents
Ship runs aground
A cargo ship ran aground in waters off Makung port in Penghu County early yesterday morning, with no causalities or damage to the ship reported, a Port of Kaohsiung spokesman said. The 480-tonne freighter Yenyu, which shuttles between Anping (安平), Tainan, and the outlying island carrying construction materials and daily necessities, encountered heavy fog on its way to Makung (馬公) Wednesday night and deviated from its set course. The ship ran aground on a reef during its final approach to Makung, according to the spokesman. Although the strike raised one-third of the ship's hull above the water's surface, it did not cause any injuries to the eight crew members aboard or damage to the structure of the ship, the spokesman said, adding that no fuel pollution has been detected so far.
■ Defense
Spain may help build subs
The US is expected to seek Spanish shipbuilder Izar's help to build diesel-electric submarines for Taiwan, as German shipbuilder HDW is unlikely to build subs for Taipei due to pressure from China, a Chinese-language newspaper said yesterday. The US agreed to sell Taiwan eight subs as part of a US$15 billion arms package approved by President George W. Bush in 2001. The China Times said that since the US navy has stopped making diesel subs, it must build the subs in conjunction with a foreign shipbuilder. The US has been considering cooperating with Germany's HDW. "But since China is putting pressure on HDW, the US is likely to turn to Izar," the daily quoted an unnamed military source as saying.
■ Society
Animal-lovers sought
The Council of Agriculture (COA) is recruiting volunteer workers for animal shelters throughout Taiwan, and welcomes animal lovers who are 15 or older to donate their free time. A spokesman for the COA said the volunteers will be given appropriate training to enable them to know the daily routines of caring for pets, such as how to walk and bathe a dog and make a stray animal look more attractive for adoption. The volunteers will also be asked to help with paperwork, including taking pictures of stray animals, building a file for each of them and publicizing the information on the Internet. The spokesman said those between 15 and 18 who wish to become volunteers must have the approval of their guardians. People who are interested in becoming volunteers can get more detailed information from the Animal Protection Information System at http://animal.coa.gov.tw/index/index.asp.
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