SOCIETY
Divorce rate dips slightly
A total of 53,144 couples were divorced last year, down 0.8 percent from the previous year, according to the latest statistics from the Ministry of the Interior. On average, 145.6 couples were divorced every day last year, 1.25 fewer per day than in 2013, the statistics showed. Last year’s numbers also showed a trend toward a higher divorce rate among couples who had been married for less than five years (31.28 percent) and those married for more than a decade (46.29 percent) last year. In 2004, just 39.99 percent of couples getting divorced had been married for more than a decade, the ministry said. Asked about reasons behind this trend, ministry officials cited marriages to foreigners as a possible factor. In 2004, the divorce rate for those who had been married to foreigners for more than decade, including people from Hong Kong, Macau or China, was 3.34 percent, but last year it was 41.9 percent.
SOCIETY
Mother presses charges
The mother of an eighth-grade student who was hit by a truck in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Yingge District (鶯歌) late last month on Saturday accused a schoolmate of her son of attempted murder for pushing her son into traffic. Chinese-language media reports said the eighth-grader, surnamed Hsu (許), has been hospitalized with a head injury for almost two weeks and needs plastic surgery on his face for the injuries he received in the accident. Hsu’s mother said a schoolmate, surnamed Chiu (邱), deliberately pushed her son into oncoming traffic because he was jealous that Hsu had a 7-inch phablet. After hearing her son’s account of the incident and watching video from the truck’s data recorder, Hsu’s mother went a Yingge police station to file charges. Chiu’s mother was quoted in the media reports as saying that her son was joking around with Hsu and never intended to push him into the road, adding that he had been distressed for days about the accident.
SOCIETY
Post office tripped up by dog
A New Taipei City post office must pay a woman NT$170,000 in compensation for injuries she incurred after tripping over a dog at the post office, the Taiwan High Court has ruled. The accident occurred on Dec. 26, 2012, when a woman surnamed Wang (王) went to a post office in Tucheng District (土城). According to the verdict, as Wang was leaving the post office, she tripped over a dog lying on the floor and fell onto an umbrella stand, resulting in a 2cm laceration on her jaw. During the first trial, a district court said the post office should be held responsible and should pay Wang NT$150,000 in compensation. The post office’s defense was that the dog belonged to another customer and it had no control over the canine. Both sides appealed the ruling to the High Court. The High Court ruled for the plaintiff, and increased her compensation, including NT$20,000 for scar removal treatment.
CROSS-STRAIT TIES
Kinmen boss pushes ties
Kinmen County Commissioner Chen Fu-hai (陳福海) yesterday said that he would spare no effort to help Kinmen become a pilot zone for trade and economic cooperation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Chen made the pledge at a cross-strait forum in Xiamen, China, according to Xinhua news agency. Chen said that his county has played a key role in the development of cross-strait ties thanks to its geographic position. Problems facing Kinmen, such as water and electricity shortages, can be resolved only through cross-strait cooperation, he said.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition