WEATHER
Nation set for cold weather
Cooler temperatures are expected this week with the advent of the northeastern monsoon, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Daily lows are expected to go down to between 21°C and 23°C nationwide, and central and southern Taiwan could see a 10-degree differential in daytime and nighttime temperatures, the bureau added. The northeastern monsoon is expected to bring scattered showers to northern, northeastern and eastern parts of the country, the bureau said.
BUSINESS
Firms’ set low English bar
Taiwanese businesses expect new employees to score an average of 550 points in the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) exam — much lower than the standard required by their South Korean counterparts, according to Educational Testing Service (ETS), an educational testing organization that conducts English proficiency tests. ETS said the results of its survey showed that only 27.9 percent of the 1,000 largest businesses in the country ask to see a TOEIC score when they recruit new employees. The average score these businesses expect is 550, ETS said. In South Korea, nearly 100 percent of the 1,000 largest companies demand an average TOEIC score of 700 from new employees, while in Japan, 83.4 percent of the companies demand a TOEIC score of 550 on average, it said.
CUISINE
Taiwan chefs scoop gold
Taiwanese chefs won four gold medals on the first day of the 2012 IKA World Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany, on Saturday, winning their honors in the individual culinary artistry category. The showpieces the four chefs presented won golds by scoring at least 90 points out of a possible 100. The Taiwanese foursome won four of the eight gold medals awarded in the artistry category, in which 44 chefs competed. Yang Jian-hong (楊鍵鴻), a student at the Department of Hospitality Management at Mingdao University, won gold with a dough figurine of Matsu, the Chinese goddess of the sea, surrounded by a dragon. Lin Shih-yu (林士育), an executive chef at Hungkuang University, presented a piece with figures from the movie Transformers made of pasta, while Yang Sheng-kai (楊勝凱), a high school English teacher, created a sculpture of hunting dogs carved out of taros. Ye Kao-chen (葉國禎), a graduate from Hungkuang University, also showcased his carving skills by using taros to create a delicate scene of lotus flowers.
HEALTH
Cancer threatens youth
The number of women in Taiwan under the age of 30 diagnosed with breast cancer is on the rise and may surpass 100 this year, said Huang Chu-chiu (黃菊秋), president of the Taiwan Breast Cancer Alliance. A growing number of young people are getting breast cancer, with the number of breast cancer patients under 30 reaching an all-time high of 97 last year, said Huang, citing Department of Health statistics, adding that the number is expected to top 100 this year. Chang Chuan-hsun (常傳訓), director of oncology at the Department of Surgery at Cheng Hsin General Hospital in Taipei, said smoking and stress were the two main factors behind the increase in breast cancer among young people. They have also led to women in Taiwan generally developing breast cancer at a younger age than in the West, he added.
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