■ SOCIETY
Immigrant center opens
Amid rising numbers of divorces among international marriage couples, Taipei City’s Department of Social Welfare joined forces with a non-governmental welfare organization, the Can Love Social Service Association, to create the Taipei New Immigrant Women and Family Service Center, which was official inaugurated yesterday. Two immigrant spouses — Arelis Gabot from the Dominican Republic and Khuu Ngoc Hoa from Vietnam — attended the press conference and shared their personal stories. Both experienced cultural shock and language barriers when they first came to Taiwan more than a decade ago. Gabot was able to solve her problems because she actively looked for help from outside and talked to her husband about her difficulties, while Khuu said she has led a hard life after divorcing, taking care of her son alone while being harassed by her former husband. The new service center aims to help immigrant women in every aspect of their lives. The foreign-language service hotline is (02) 2558-0119.
■ TOURISM
Kaohsiung to keep office
The Kaohsiung City Government yesterday passed a proposal to keep the city’s Information Office after the city merges with Kaohsiung County at the end of the year. An extra administrative meeting yesterday, presided over by Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Lee Yung-te (李永得), backtracked on the city government’s agreement in November to eliminate the office and transfer its duties to the city’s Tourism Bureau. The Kaohsiung City Council had rejected the city government’s fiscal budget proposal because it did not follow a 2008 resolution to dissolve the office or merge it with other city government agencies by June this year. “The city needs the information office to help the city become an international port metropolis and raise residents’ [Kaohsiung] identity,” the city government said in a press release.
■ TRANSPORTATION
Holiday rail tickets available
Both the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) and the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) will allow people to start booking tickets for the Tomb Sweeping holiday from today. Tomb Sweeping Day this year falls on April 5, a Monday. Travelers will likely head home on the weekend of April 3 and April 4. People will be able to make online reservations for high-speed rail tickets from midnight tonight, while TRA online tickets became available at 6am today. THSRC said it is planning to add 64 services to the schedule for the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday and the TRA said it was planning to add 265 services.
■ EDUCATION
IELTS scholarships available
To encourage students to take the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) exam, the British Council will select and provide scholarships to five postgraduate students who take the test and apply to study abroad this year. Each of the qualified applicants could receive a scholarship of NT$100,000 toward tuition, the council said. Greg Selby, British Council IELTS manager in East Asia, said the council was also launching the scholarship in Vietnam, South Korea and India, with a total investment of about £60,000 (US$92,000) this year. Students who apply for the scholarship must live in Taiwan and score at least 6.5 on the IELTS exam. Applications must be received by the council by the end of July.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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