WEATHER
Cold air approaching
Two cold air masses are expected to arrive in Taiwan before Lunar New Year’s Day on Monday next week, with northern regions expected to experience chilly, wet weather during both cold waves, the Central Weather Bureau forecast yesterday. The first cold front, a continental cold air mass from southern China that is to affect the nation from today to Wednesday, is to send temperatures to lows of 13?C in the north and northeast. The mercury is to fall to lows of 14?C in central and southern regions, and 16?C to 17?C in Hualien and Taitung counties. During the period, rain is expected in the northern half of the nation, and some eastern and southern regions, the bureau said. That cold front is to weaken on Thursday, with another cold air mass approaching on Friday. It is to drive temperatures down to 12?C or 13?C in northern and northeastern regions, 14?C in southern regions and 15?C in eastern regions on Saturday, the bureau said.
HEALTH
Rabid animal bites farmer
The Council of Agriculture on Saturday confirmed the nation’s second rabies case this year after a farmer in central Taiwan was bitten by a ferret-badger. Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Deputy Director-General Shih Tai-hua (施泰華) said the farmer from Nantou County’s Puli Township (埔里) was bitten when he found a ferret-badger in his chicken coop on Friday last week. The animal was sent to the council’s Animal Health Research Institute and was put to sleep after it tested positive for rabies. The 70-year-old farmer was inoculated with a rabies vaccine and is said to be in good health. The bureau said people who do not vaccinate their pet dogs or cats for rabies as required by law may be fined between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000. Rabies cases have been reported in the nation since 2013.
SOCIETY
Charity banquets held
A year-end free luncheon took place in the public plaza outside the Presidential Office Building yesterday, serving more than 23,000 socially disadvantaged people a menu of dishes Taiwanese typically associate with family gatherings. The annual charity weiya (尾牙, year-end banquet), an annual fixture since 1996, was organized by the Genesis Social Welfare Foundation and its two sister groups, the Jen’an and Huashan foundations. The groups held a total of 16 weiya, serving about 40,000 people, across the nation yesterday to treat low-income families, homeless people, elderly people living alone, and single mothers and their children to a meal ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.
EDUCATION
Dropout rate increases
The dropout rate at the nation’s elementary and junior-high schools was slightly higher in the 2014-2015 academic year than in the previous year, according to figures released on Friday by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics. A total of 4,214 elementary and junior-high school students dropped out during the 2014-2015 school year, translating to a dropout rate of 0.21 percent. Although the total number of dropouts was down 102 from the previous year, the dropout rate was 0.01 percentage points higher because of lower total enrollment caused by a declining birth rate. Of the dropouts, 90 percent were junior-high school students, 51 percent were boys and 60 percent were from single-parent families, according to the figures.
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
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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