■ SOCIETY
TAS to hold flea market
The Taipei American School (TAS) Orphanage Club is hosting a “Spring Flea Market/Rummage Sale” today from 10am to 3pm. The sale will be held in the lobby and forecourt of the school. Admission is free and there will be bargains galore, including games, clothing, books, household items, jewelry, toys, small appliances and plants as people clean out their homes. TAS is located at 800 Zhongshan N Road Sec 6, in Tianmu (天母).
■ EMERGENCY SERVICES
Disaster response drills held
Four disaster response drills simulating relief and rescue operations during massive flooding, earthquakes and epidemic outbreaks, as well as serious transportation accidents, were held in Taipei simultaneously yesterday. Nearly 3,000 personnel and 300 vehicles of various types, including ships and helicopters, were mobilized to carry out the drills. The drills were held at four different locations, including the Taipei Youth Park and the No. 6 pier on the Tamsui River. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said he hoped the disaster preparedness exercises would allow all city government units to put in place standard procedures for disaster prevention, response and control operations.
■ HEALTH
Suicide rate falls
The nation’s suicide rate fell last year, but still nearly 4,000 Taiwanese committed suicide, averaging one suicide every two hours, the Department of Health said yesterday. A total of 3,933 people killed themselves last year, averaging 10.7 suicides per day, or one suicide every two hours. The suicide rate was 17.2 per 100,000 people. Last year’s figure was 473 suicides fewer than in 2006. Department officials attributed the drop in the suicide rate to the government and civic groups’ efforts in suicide prevention, such as opening suicide-prevention hot lines. But suicide prevention work must be strengthened because, although the nation’s suicide rate fell last year, suicides among the 15 to 24 age group rose and among those who committed suicide, five were children aged 10 to 14, the officials said.
■ EMERGENCY SERVICES
Network to monitor rivers
The central government will establish digital surveillance networks to monitor 24 major rivers within the next two years in an attempt to provide an early warning for possible disasters, a senior official at the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Thursday. Chen Shen-hsien (陳伸賢), director-general of the ministry’s Water Resources Agency, explained that the networks would deploy infrared cameras along river banks to gather 24-hour, real-time information and a data processing system would compare the images received every 15 seconds. “In doing so, the system will alert its managers when any inconsistency is spotted that would indicate a change in landscape and a possible hazard,” Chen said. The networks would also serve as a monitor against illegal activities, such as illicit trash dumping and the theft of gravel, he said. “The agency will dispatch an investigation team to the site should the system spot any suspicious human activity,” Chen said. “The staffers will then video the process and notify the police and the district prosecutor to take legal action.” The agency said the networks will cost some NT$200 million (US$6.4 million) and become fully operational in 2010.
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