■ Society
Chen greets delegates
Taiwan has ensured the rights of children and adolescents by ensconcing them in new laws, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday as he received 90 children from 18 countries taking part in a summit promoting children's human rights. Chen praised the summit's theme, "Children help Children," saying the spirit is similar to his belief that stressing human rights is one of the foundations of Taiwan. Chen said Taiwan passed the Child and Juvenile Welfare Law (兒童及少年福利法) in May 2003. "The new law stipulates that any child or adolescent is eligible for the rights, rather than just being an individual subject to protection. The change demonstrates that the rights of children and adolescents have gradually become valued in Taiwan," Chen said.
■ Society
MOI sets citizenship test
The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) yesterday unveiled the criteria to measure the language ability and civics knowledge of foreigners seeking citizenship. Applicants will be able to either present documents proving their qualifications or take tests to be held every January, April, July and November, starting next year. The documents submitted by the applicants should prove that they have studied in a school in Taiwan for at least one year or have taken a course provided by the government for naturalization applicants, the officials said. Foreigners who do not want to take the course can take a written test or an oral test in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka or Aboriginal languages. Applicants will need to answer 20 test questions selected from a database of 200 questions. Applicants aged 65 or over will need to get at least 50 percent on the test, while spouses and foster children of citizens have to get at least 60 percent and other foreigners have to get 70 percent. Sample questions include: What kind of taxes are collected by the local government? What is the minimum age to raise a pet?
■ Education
Fewer students drop out
A total of 8,168 middle and elementary school students quit school in the last academic year, a decrease of 437 people compared with the previous year, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics reported yesterday. The report, based on statistics from the Ministry of Education, said the main reason for dropping out was dislike of studying in school, with 39.6 percent of dropouts quitting school because of "personal preference." Some 30.3 percent of the dropouts were forced to leave school due to family problems, the agency said. In terms of family background, 46.5 percent of the dropouts were from single-parent families, while 2.3 percent dropped out after suffering the loss of their parents.
■ Education
Nursing school inks pact
The National Taipei College of Nursing (NTCN) signed a deal yesterday with the International Cooperation and Development Fund to assist in training volunteer caretakers assigned to work in foreign countries. A two-day conference organized by the two institutions also began yesterday, with talks on health-care policy, care of cancer patients, preventive medicine, international relief efforts and midwife training. Participants included officials and academics from Kiribati, Malawi, Swaziland and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, college officials said. They hope the conference will encourage more Taiwanese health-care institutions and professionals to join in international health-care systems.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai