The legislature yesterday passed amendments requiring those who intend to use fire during indoor performances or to release sky lanterns to apply for a permit.
The amendments came in the wake of a deadly bar fire in Greater Taichung last month that killed nine people and injured 12.
A fire dancer at the ALA Pub set fire to the ceiling with his torch during a performance, triggering the blaze.
ADVANCE PERMISSION
According to the amended Fire Services Act (消防法), owners of buildings and public spaces are now required to apply for permission to stage performances involving the use of fire, otherwise specified.
Violators could be fined between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000.
The amendment also requires prior permission for setting off sky lanterns, a traditional practice to celebrate or bring good luck, and burning grass or other items on plots of land, a common practice used by farmers clearing dry grass or crop stubble.
Violators face a fine of up to NT$3,000.
The legislature yesterday also approved an amendment to the Drug Injury Relief Act (藥害救濟法) to allow people to seek compensation from drug manufacturers over off-label medication and prescription of a medication in a manner different from those specified by the manufacturers.
OFF-LABEL USE
Off-label use of medications or drugs means that the drug is used for a different disease or condition than it was originally designed for, or it is given or applied in a different way or in a different dose than that specified in the government-approved label.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英), who initiated the drug amendment, said the original regulation that excluded off-label use did not make sense because many people take off-label medication under the directions of their doctors.
Using off-label medication has been a common practice in Taiwan because doctors are not prohibited from prescribing such treatment, and the number of applications in connection with off-label use of medication accounted for about 30 percent of total cases, Huang 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