HEALTH
Measles vaccinations urged
People are urged to get vaccinated against measles before traveling to the UK for the Olympic Games because a number of cases have been reported there this year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. As of April 29, there have been 1,279 suspected cases of measles in the UK this year, 196 more than in the same period last year, according to a statement released by the CDC. With the measles season under way in Europe, people attending the Games are advised to consult doctors about inoculation programs two to four weeks before departure, the CDC said. Ukraine, which is hosting the European Football Championship this month, has also seen a large number of measles cases this year.
ENVIRONMENT
New crabs discovered
A research team recently found two kinds of crabs on Siaoliouciou (小琉球), an island off the southwest, that had never before been recorded in Taiwan. One of the two, charybdis paucidentata, commonly known as the red or crucifix crab, is a rare swimming crab species mostly found in the Red Sea and in waters off East Africa, Australia and Japan, the team said. The crab was caught by fishermen just off the shore of Siaoliouciou Island in April, said National Kaohsiung Normal University geography professor Lo Liu-chih (羅柳墀), who led the research team. A member of the research team spotted the crab among the waste dumped by fishermen. The other crab, the Pseudomicippe indonesica, is a rare species in the spider crab family, Lo said, adding that Taiwan is now only the second place in the world where the crab has been spotted, along with Indonesia.
HEALTH
HIV Testing Month declared
The Taiwan AIDS Foundation said on Friday it has designated this month as National HIV Testing Month and will offer testing services at locations nationwide. The foundation, set up in 2005 to serve as a platform for AIDS prevention, said the activity was inspired by the designation of June 27 as National HIV Testing Day in the US by the National Association of People With AIDS. The foundation said that according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, 22,296 Taiwanese had been infected with HIV from 1984 to February. An equal number are thought to have the virus without knowing they are infected, the foundation said. “Because the incubation period of HIV is about 10 years, these people could spread the virus through unsafe sex without realizing that they have been infected,” the foundation said.
LABOR
Complaints increase: bureau
New Taipei City’s (新北市) Labor Affairs Department said yesterday the number of complaints lodged by foreign workers through its 1955 hotline from January to April rose by more than 80 percent from the same period last year. Among those cases, 24.9 percent concerned disputes over payment, it said, adding that employers who violate workers’ rights face fines of up to NT$300,000. In one dispute, the department said it ordered an employer to pay a foreign caregiver overtime and reimburse unfair salary deductions after the worker complained she was receiving a monthly salary of only NT$19,000, despite working up to 18 hours a day. Workers should be able to keep their work permits and passports, the department said, adding that to avoid possible disputes, employers should not assign workers additional tasks.
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