■ Dad sought in child's death
An eight-year-old blind girl with a brain malfunction is believed to have been murdered by her father when her mother went shopping with their housemaid yesterday afternoon. According to the police, the girl died from suffocation. On her neck were bruises. The father, the prime suspect, is a middle school teacher in Tali Township (大里), Taichung County. He has gone missing. A note left by him to the victim's mother said only: "She has gone." Another of the couple's children, a nine-year-old daughter, was left at home unharmed. The daughter told TV reporters that her father had often said he wanted to kill the blind daughter. The police said that the couple both work as teachers at the same school. The father had been diagnosed with depression after his mother's death in May last year, and is believed to have been contemplating committing suicide. As of press time, the police were still looking for the father.
■ Environment
Mercury levels declining
Mercury levels found in fish and sediment in the nation's rivers have decreased significantly, which shows that the problem of environmental pollution has improved, according to the results of a survey released yesterday by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA). The survey was conducted by National Cheng Kung University's Research Center for Environmental Trace Toxic Substances for the EPA in March and August last year. For the purposes of the survey, fish and sediment from seven rivers, including the Tamsui river, the Touchien river, the Choshui river, the Tachia river, the Erhjen river, the Peikang river and the Hsiukuluan river were, analyzed. The results show that the mercury levels in the fish in these rivers averaged 0.051mg/kg, compared with the 0.2mg/kg found in a similar survey carried out in 2003.
■ Wildlife
Endangered birds increasing
The number of endangered black-faced spoonbills spotted in Taiwan is increasing, with members of the Wild Bird Society of Tainan and other conservation groups counting 819 of the birds in Tainan County, an increase of 78 from last year. The census was conducted at the request of BirdLife International as part of a global census on the population of the rare birds that also included Japan, South Korea, China, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand. The global figure is expected to be released in the next week. Last year, an international census on the birds recorded 1,475 individuals, a 22 percent increase over 2004, with the numbers at the main wintering grounds in Taiwan and Hong Kong up by 20 percent. The global total of black-faced spoonbills has recovered steadily since 1990 when only 294 birds were counted. By 2003, the population had risen to more than 1,000 birds.
■ Earthquakes
Southeast hit by quake
An undersea earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale jolted southeastern Taiwan yesterday, the Seismology Center said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The quake struck at 2pm, with its epicenter 15.1km northeast of the coastal town of Chengkung and 19.4km below the seabed. Taiwan, lying near the junction of two tectonic plates, is shaken regularly by earthquakes.
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