■ Politics
Premier confirms promotion
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday confirmed that deputy minister of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Winston Dang (陳重信) will be promoted to become the minister of the agency, a post which was left vacant after former minister Chang Kow-lung (張國龍) resigned along with former premier Su Tseng-chang's (蘇貞昌) Cabinet last month. Former Democratic Progressive Party legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) will serve as the deputy chairman of the National Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, Chang said. Minister without Portfolio Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) will double as the chairwoman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development, he said.
■ Travel
UK visa changes on the way
Starting next month, all applicants for a UK visa will have to provide fingerprint scans and personal digital photos, the British Trade and Cultural Office (BTCO) announced yesterday. The British government is introducing the collection of biometric data for all visa applicants worldwide, it added. The new measures will start on July 26 and all applicants will have to apply for a visa in person at the BTCO so their photo can be taken and they can be fingerprinted. BTCO director Michael Reilly said that biometric visas provide a higher standard of security and will in time make entry clearance into the UK simpler and easier. The changes will help improve security checks and prevent fraudulent visa use and the abuse of the UK's immigration and asylum system, he said.
■ Health
Diverse treatments popular
Over half of the country's families have tried Chinese medicine, Western medicine and folk therapy as medical treatment options have become more diversified, a National Cheng Kung University hospital official said on Wednesday. Huang Ying-hsiang (黃盈翔) said that a study on the medical treatment of 2,000 families around the country found that nearly half of rural families and nearly two-thirds of urban families have sought the three different forms of treatment. Western medicine is still the mainstream therapy although traditional Chinese medicine has become the next-most commonly sought after treatment while the use of alternative therapies have also become popular. The results of a survey conducted in 2003 showed that 75 percent of respondents said they would be willing to seek at least one kind of alternative therapy. Those who have received higher education, are middle class and in poor health, and women suffering from anxiety, chronic pain or urinary problems, are more likely to seek alternative therapy, the study found.
■ Society
Drunk driving killing more
Drunk driving has become the No. 1 cause of deaths on public roads, according to statistics in a report released by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday. The ministry said 727 people died last year as a result of drunk driving-related road accidents. The report pointed out that in 2001, drunk driving ranked third among all causes of road deaths before becoming the second leading cause in 2002. Since 2004, the number of road accidents due to drunk drinking has increased about 30 percent each year from 2,502 in 2004 to 2,999 last year, accounting for 16.7 percent and 36.5 percent of annual road traffic accidents respectively. The number of deaths caused by drunk driving also rose from 454 in 2004 to 547 in 2005, and to 727 last year.
■ Entertainment
Station to shoot 100 films
Videoland Movie Channel, the country's first cable television channel dedicated to showing Chinese-language films, announced yesterday that it will set aside NT$1 billion (US$30.2 million) to produce 100 digital films over the next five years. Company president Hu Kuan-chen (胡冠珍) told reporters that her company would also spend millions to recruit writing talent. Hu, 38, is a former actress who has starred in 18 films. She made the announcement two days after the channel celebrated its 15th anniversary. Her deputy, Yao Ching-kang (姚慶康) -- who has written 36 plays -- said Videoland would begin to shoot films in different genres in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China this year, and that the company would place more emphasis on good screenplays than on big name stars.
■ Education
Smart house unveiled
National Cheng Kung University yesterday launched an innovative "house of quality life" that brings together advanced technology, user-friendly interfaces and creative interior designs to present a vision of a better living space, the Tainan-based university said. Kevin Yang (楊家輝), director of the university's Institute of Computer and Communications Engineering, explained that the house was the result of a collaboration between seven departments and institutes, and was representative of the university's interdisciplinary capabilities. The house features flexible walls and partitions, a wireless sensing network, a large 3D display, user-oriented lighting and appliance control, and "virtual" windows that can remember user preferences and which adjust automatically to favor "comfortable" conditions, the university said.
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