■ SOCIETY
Divorce rate still climbing
The country's divorce rate continued to climb last year, with an average of 177 couples filing for divorce every day, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday, Last year, a total of 64,540 couples filed for divorce, averaging 177 divorces per day, up from 62,571 couples that filed for divorce (171 divorces per day) in 2005, the ministry said in a report. Taiwan's divorce rate was 2.83 per 1,000 people last year and 2.75 per 1,000 of the population in 2005. In the past 10 years, Taiwan's divorce rate has doubled. In 1996, 35,875 couples filed for divorce, an average of 75 divorces per day, with a divorce rate of 1.67 per 1,000 people. Academics have attributed the rising divorce rate to the breakdown of the nuclear family structure and young people's putting personal happiness ahead of their responsibility family.
■ HEALTH
Self-examination promoted
The Formosa Cancer Foundation called on women yesterday to get into the habit of regularly performing breast self-examinations to check for possible signs of breast cancer. While breast cancer has the highest incidence and mortality rates of any cancer among the nation's women, the results of a recent survey of 4,000 women conducted by the foundation showed that only 37 percent of respondents were aware that women should start performing regular self-examinations after reaching the age of 18. Meanwhile, the survey showed that there are six common myths about breast cancer among women in Taiwan, with 42 percent to 55 percent of the respondents believing that breast cancer patients cannot breast feed, that most breast cancer cases are due to hereditary factors, that breast cancer is always terminal, that women with the cancer cannot have children, that sufferers must have their breasts removed completely and that they cannot have sexual intercourse.
■ SOCIETY
UK office offers funding
Non-profit organizations will be able to bid for funding support from the British Trade and Cultural Office (BTCO) for Taiwan-based projects under the theme of climate change and human rights protection. Priority will be given to projects that take a strategic approach to both of these areas and which are likely to make a sustained difference, according to a statement released by the office. Projects must be completed by March next year and preference will be given to projects that are scheduled for completion by December this year, BTCO said. Funding of up to NT$300,000 per project is available. The deadline for applications is May 30.
■ HEALTH
Shigellosis cases reported
A total of 26 cases of shigellosis, also known as bacillary dysentery in its most severe manifestation, have been reported in Taiwan so far this year, the Department of Health (DOH) said. Of these, 13 originated in Southeast Asia, said Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), deputy director of the DOH Center for Disease Control. Chou reminded people planning to visit the region to pay attention to hygiene and to avoid raw food. He added that the disease center had sent notices to the Tourism Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, travel agencies and tour guide groups informing them to take environmental sanitation into account when drawing up tour plans and to educate tourists about hygiene. The report said that four shigellosis cases detected in April and early this month all originated in Bali.
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