Print

Mail

wiki links

Taiwan News Quick Take

■ LABOR

Free clinic for workers

The Taipei City Department of Labor will organize a free one-day clinic today to provide health checks and medical consultancy services to foreign workers. The clinic will be held from 1:30pm to 5pm today at the Taipei Railway Station, in a joint effort between the city government and the Tzu Chi International Medical Association (TIMA). The city department and the non-profit organization will recruit local physicians who speak the languages of Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam to volunteer at the clinic, a statement issued by the department said. The services provided will include normal health checks and basic medical treatment for those suffering from depression, eye, skin and teeth problems, and gynecological and internal diseases. Council of Labor Affairs statistics show that as of August, there were more than 373,336 foreign laborers in Taiwan, 125,330 of whom were from Indonesia, 85,639 from the Philippines, 82,643 from Thailand and 79,703 from Vietnam.



■ ENVIRONMENT

Rare crab spotted

A species of rare land crab has been spotted in Kenting National Park, marking only the third time in history that this type of species has been observed by scientists, sources at the park administration said on Friday. The park’s biologists said that the sesarmid crab, named labuanium trapezoideum, was first spotted on Andaman Island, Indonesia, in 1837 and biologists did not find another such crab until 166 years later. In 2003, a group of biologists found several labuanium trapezoideum crabs in Taitung County and made detailed records of their biological and behavioral characteristics, which was later published in the science journal Crustaceana. Since 2003, however, no other habitats of labuanium trapezoideum crabs had been found in Taiwan. Last month, an amateur ecologist at the park reported seeing and photographed a “strange” crab, which was later identified as a labuanium trapezoideum crab. Park biologists said the finding indicates not only that the species still exists, but that there may be a new habitat inside the national park.



■ EDUCATION

Students admitted in France

Ten Taiwanese senior high school students have recently gained admission to the preparatory school of France’s prestigious Grandes Ecoles. The 10 gained admission after passing an examination sponsored by the French Ministry of Education to select outstanding Taiwanese high school students for studies at the preparatory school. They will be able to attend the two-year “Classes Preparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles” beginning early next year, a Ministry of Education (MOE) official said. The French government will fund the two-year tuition for the 10 while the MOE will provide them with round-trip plane tickets.



■ IMMIGRATION

Foreign marriage rate drops

Statistics compiled by the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) show that the cross-border marriage rate has significantly declined in the past four years, a result of a stricter immigration interview system implemented by the National Immigration Agency (NIA). The cross-border marriage rate had climbed from 15.69 percent in 1998 to 31.86 percent by 2003, and thereafter declined to 18.29 percent last year, when 24,700 Taiwanese married foreign spouses, of which 14,721 were from China. The NIA began to conduct immigration interviews for Chinese spouses to prevent them from using marriage as a ruse to gain entry to Taiwan.


This story has been viewed 933 times.