■HEALTH
CDC wants clean hands
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday called on the public to take personal hygiene seriously and to wash their hands frequently, saying that two cases of severe enterovirus have been reported this year. A six-year-old boy has been released from hospital while a three-year-old boy from Yunlin County was still receiving treatment, CDC deputy director Shih Wen-yih (施文儀) said. The center said that with the peak season for intestinal disease expected in two to three weeks, parents and teachers should ensure that children wash their hands thoroughly with anti-bacterial soap before meals.
■LAWSUITS
First lady wins case
The Taiwan High Court yesterday ruled that political commentator Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒) must pay first lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) NT$600,000 (US$18,800) in compensation for alleging that she stole newspapers from Harvard University’s Harvard-Yenching Library when she was a student there. Chin made the allegation during President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) presidential campaign in 2008. Chow immediately filed a lawsuit against Chin with the Taipei District Court, demanding that he publish an apology in four major newspapers while asking for NT$5 million (US$162,000) in compensation, which she said she would donate to charity. The Taipei District Court said Chin must compensate Chow and post an apology in four major newspapers. The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld the district court’s ruling. Chin can appeal with the Supreme Court.
■FESTIVALS
Children’s films in spotlight
A children’s film festival will be held in Taipei City and feature 130 films from 30 countries, an organizer said yesterday. This year’s Taiwan International Children’s Film Festival (TICFF), a biennial event dedicated to children under the age of 12, will be held at the Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsinyi and Eslite Hsinyi bookstore from Thursday through April 11. One of the opening films is Bye-Bye Morakot, a documentary about the life of children affected by the devastating typhoon, which hit Taiwan in August, organizer Wang Chung-wen (王瓊文) said. The festival, organized by Public Television Service since 2004, will also present works directed by Taiwanese children from schools across the country.
■FOREIGN AID
Tzu Chi helps Chileans
Volunteers from the Buddhist Compassionate Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (慈濟功德會) recently distributed vital supplies, including food and blankets, to the victims of a powerful earthquake that hit Chile late last month, the charity said yesterday. The magnitude 8.8 earthquake occurred off Chile’s western coast on Feb. 27, killing hundreds of people and displacing tens of thousands. Estimates put the damage at more than US$30 billion. Seventy-two Tzu Chi volunteers from Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia and the US began the two-day relief operation on Saturday in Dichato, one of the hardest-hit areas, Tzu Chi said in a news release. The group then travelled to Tumbes and Cobquecura to continue aid distribution, Tzu Chi said. A total of 2,500 earthquake-affected households received the supplies, which include cooking oil, sugar, salt, flour, noodle, powdered milk and blankets, the organization said, adding that the relief operations helped more than 8,500 people. Tzu Chi’s next distribution program to Chilean quake victims is scheduled for May.
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