■ENVIRONMENT
Kaohsiung's air gets worse
Air pollution got worse in Kaohsiung last month, with the smoke stacks of factories in the neighboring counties and cities of Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan blamed for fouling the air, city officials said yesterday. Quoting an Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) report on air quality in the Kaohsiung and Pingtung area, officials from the city's Department of Environmental Protection indicated that the frequency of poor air quality in Kaohsiung City stood at 12.5 percent last month, meaning that there were four or five days when air quality in the city was significantly below standard. That percentage surpassed the single-month average of the first 10 months by 2.5 times, the officials said, noting they believe the deteriorating air quality was caused by emissions of waste gas from petrochemical factories in Yunlin County's Mailiao Township (麥寮). In the presence of sunshine certain waste gases change into harmful ozone, which the wind blows away from the area where it is produced, said department Director Hsiao Yu-cheng (蕭裕正).
■ EDUCATION
Study in US grows
The number of Taiwanese students enrolled at US colleges and universities grew by 4.4 percent last year, making the country the fifth largest source of foreign students in the US, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said yesterday. The AIT issued a statement saying that a new annual report published by the Institute of International Education with support from the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs indicated that the number of Taiwan students increased to 29,094 last year, overtaking Canada with 28,280 students.
FEELING MISUNDERSTOOD: Media speculation has fueled confusion about the KMT’s reasons for skipping a Chinese forum and delaying an AIT meeting, party sources said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Sunday said that it is not seeking to improve relations with the US or China at the expense of the other, and that its relations with the countries would be topic-based. The party has faced questions over its foreign policy after it on Monday last week announced its withdrawal from the annual Straits Forum and delayed planned talks with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). The party has also taken a tough stance on the importation of US meat containing ractopamine, while also lambasting China for increasing its military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait. Following
Taipei City Councilor Wang Hao (王浩) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Monday called for security improvements to the MRT, as fare evasion has increased more than 13-fold on the metropolitan railway system over the past five years. Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has spoken out against fare evasion and other contraventions of MRT regulations, but since he took office in 2015 the number of contraventions has more than doubled, Wang said, adding that there were 537 cases in 2015 compared with 959 last year. A video was posted to YouTube in June showing people how to evade paying a fare,
AN EXAMPLE: After attending a memorial service for Lee Teng-hui, Mori said the former president’s career reflected the importance of peace and democracy Using military force to resolve conflict is no longer workable in this new era, which requires peaceful discussion, former Japanese prime minister Yoshiro Mori said yesterday before leaving Taipei. Mori made the remarks at a news conference in front of the EVA Sky Jet Center at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), after leading a delegation to attend the official memorial service for former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水). This was Mori’s second trip to mourn Lee; his last was on Aug. 9. Although he walked with a crutch, Mori, 83, chose to stand right in front of
CONTROVERSY: NHIA Director-General Lee Po-chang said an outcry over overseas Taiwanese not paying premiums, but having coverage, is pushing rule amendments Rules changes are being considered that would force Taiwanese who permanently live abroad to pay National Health Insurance (NHI) premiums for the period they were overseas before they can re-enroll in the system, National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) Director-General Lee Po-chang (李伯璋) yesterday said. The case of a married Taiwanese couple who lived in the US for about 30 years, but returned to Taiwan in April and tested positive for COVID-19 has again sparked public debate over why Taiwanese living abroad are allowed to use NHI resources, — although the couple’s expenses were not covered by the NHI. An often cited example
RSS