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Taiwan News Quick Take

■ DIPLOMACY

AIT offices closed

In observance of Martin Luther King Jr Day, all offices of the American Institute in Taiwan will be closed on Monday. The offices will re-open the following day.



■ DIPLOMACY

Cambodia rebuffs Taiwan

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday it regretted the Cambodian government's continual objection to forging closer economic ties with Taiwan. Ministry spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) made the statement after Phnom Penh reiterated that it did not welcome any form of Taiwanese liaison office in its country. The Central News Agency reported that the Cambodian foreign ministry had issued a statement yesterday saying that, because it respected Beijing's "one China" principle, Cambodia would not allow the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) to set up a branch in the country. At press time, TAITRA had not made any official response to Phnom Penh's rejection.



■ EDUCATION

Political speech contest

Foreign Mandarin students had an opportunity to weigh in on the political situation and display their language abilities in an "If I Were President" speech contest held by Radio Taiwan International on Sunday evening. A total of 46 students from 14 countries took part in the preliminary round of the contest co-sponsored by the publicly funded radio station and National Taiwan Normal University's Mandarin Training Center. The contest was a colorful affair, with the participants using a variety of creative approaches to liven up their speeches. One of the contestants from Vietnam, Du Duc Hiep, a business management student at Tamkang University, used a traditional form of four-verse poetry to express how he would govern as Taiwan's head of state.



■ CRIME

Changes to drug laws mulled

The Ministry of Education (MOE) plans to amend laws to require teenage drug users and their parents to attend counseling classes and impose fines on them, an official said yesterday. In addition, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) is considering sending teenage drug users to juvenile court, said Wang Fu-lin (王福林), director of the MOE's military training department. The planned measures are part of the ministries' efforts to respond to the rapidly increasing numbers of teenage students using drugs in recent years, Wang told a national meeting in Kaohsiung attended by local education chiefs. Citing MOE statistics, Wang noted that the number of students who were caught using grade three drugs, including ketamine and flunitrazepam, saw a five-fold rise from 39 in 2004 to 195 last year.



■ SOCIETY

Former minister dies

Former education minister and Academia Sinica research fellow Wu Jin (吳京), who advocated the recognition of Chinese diplomas, died of cancer at noon in Tainan yesterday. The 74-year-old researcher was respected for his dedication to education reform during his term as education minister between 1996 and 1998. During his term, he sought to reform the education system because he believed it attached too much importance to students' grades. He also proposed a military training program for female college students in 1996. Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) expressed his condolences on behalf of the ministry and praised Wu's contribution to education reform.
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