SOCIETY
TAS holding flea market to help poor
The Taipei American School’s (TAS) Orphanage Club will hold a Flea Market and Book Sale on Saturday to raise funds for needy children and orphans at home and abroad. The flea market, featuring a wide range of new and used items, will be held from 10am to 3pm, while the book sale will end at 5pm, the club said. Thousands of books will be on offer, from novels, mysteries, biographies and travel books to cookbooks, children’s fiction and English-teaching books. Both activities will be held at the TAS campus in Tianmu, rain or shine, it said. For more information, contact Richard Arnold at (02) 2873-9900 extension 239 or Mrs Koh at (02) 2874-0902.
SOCIETY
Animals Taiwan to host bazaar
Animals Taiwan will hold its first annual Summer Charity Bazaar next Saturday at Yuma Grill from 11am to 3pm, the group said. All proceeds will go to help stray and injured animals, it said. A wide array of items, ranging from antiques to jewelry, homemade bags, kids’ products and food, will be sold at the bazaar, it said. Admission is NT$600, which includes a buffet lunch and a NT$100 shopping voucher. Tickets to a raffle for various prizes — from hotel accommodations to digital cameras — are on sale. For information, contact Michelle at 0955-360-693 or Liza at 0932-344-687, or e-mail liza@animalstaiwan.org.
SOCIETY
More foreigners naturalized: ministry
A total of 13,232 foreigners were naturalized as Republic of China (ROC) citizens last year, an increase of 2,468 over the 2007 figure, the Ministry of the Interior said on Saturday. Last year, 98.1 percent of the naturalized citizens were foreign women married to local men. Close to 81 percent of them were from Vietnam, followed by 9.4 percent from Indonesia and 4.7 percent from Cambodia, ministry statistics showed. Meanwhile, about 780 Taiwanese citizens lost their ROC citizenship last year, up by 64 compared with the 2007 number. The figures showed that 73.5 percent of them made the decision on their own, with 41.9 percent renouncing their citizenship to apply for Japanese citizenship, 20.6 percent seeking Singapore citizenship and 17.8 percent applying for South Korean citizenship.
DIPLOMACY
EETO marks Europe Day
The European Economic and Trade Office (EETO) held a reception on Friday to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of Europe Day. Celebrated on May 9, Europe Day marks the anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, in which former French foreign minister Robert Schuman proposed a new form of political arrangement for Europe. Six countries decided in the 1957 Treaty of Rome to build a European Economic Community, which has evolved into the EU. EETO head Guy Ledoux told the members of the diplomatic corps in Taiwan on Friday that “creativity and innovation” were the theme of this year’s celebration, and the theme had also been applied to the relations between the EU and Taiwan in promoting science, technology and cultural exchanges. “A major innovation in 2009 will also be the opening of the EU Center,” Ledoux said. “This is why we are providing a 1.1 million euro [US$1.5 million] grant to a consortium of universities led by National Taiwan University with the task of increasing alliances between the EU and the Taiwanese public,” Ledoux said.
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
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