SOCIETY
Photo contest announced
The Council of Labor Affairs yesterday said that from now until Nov. 17, it will be accepting entries to a photography contest featuring foreign workers in Taiwan. The council said it launched the contest, titled “Realizing Dreams One Step at a Time,” because it hopes to promote equality and communicate its dedication to improving the rights and dignity of foreign workers in Taiwan through observing foreign workers through the lens of a camera. All Taiwanese nationals and foreign workers are eligible to enter the contest. Contestants can submit photographs to enter in one of three categories: melting, accommodating and prosperity. Photographs in the “melting” category should demonstrate how foreign workers become part of Taiwanese society, the “accommodating” category should show how Taiwanese society and foreign workers accommodate each other, while “prosperity” photos should reflect how foreign workers contribute to the country’s economy and families. Top prize winners will receive NT$30,000, a trophy and a copy of the photo book.
EDUCATION
TOEIC scores improving
Taiwanese senior high school students scored an average of 543.8 in last year’s Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) exams, up from 524 in 2008, according to a survey released on Wednesday. Benjamin Wang (王星威) of the Taiwan branch of the US-based Educational Testing Service (ETS), which sets the exams and conducted the survey, said the score was an indication that students are steadily improving their English proficiency. The students did better on the reading and listening parts than in 2008, he said, with scores going up 14 points and 5 points respectively. The number of high school students taking TOEIC exams grew by about 30 percent, from 17,500 in 2008 to 22,656 last year, the survey also showed. TOEIC is a test of English proficiency used as a standard for establishing workplace English writing skills and spoken English proficiency for non-native English-speaking people, the ETS Web site explains. The highest possible score is 990.
JUSTICE
Paparazzi-like group formed
Judicial Yuan President Rai Hau-min (賴浩敏) said his agency would form a -paparazzi-like team to monitor judicial personnel suspected of unethical or unlawful behavior as part of its efforts to bolster public trust in the judiciary. “We will follow the lead of the Ministry of Justice in setting up a special task force to monitor judges with less-than-ideal reputations, controversial or complex relationships and abnormal work-attendance records,” Rai said. According to Rai, the ministry has long been operating a self--correction program under which the ministry assigns staff members to probe behavior of prosecutors and investigators under its jurisdiction who are suspected of irregularities.
HEALTH
Students offered free shots
Starting immediately, fifth and sixth-grade students nationwide are eligible for free seasonal flu shots, announced the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced after a number of children were hospitalized recently with severe influenza infections. Acting on a suggestion from its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the Department of Health has decided to expand the free flu shot program to include fifth and sixth graders, CDC Deputy Director Chou Chih-hao (周志浩) said.
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