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.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost