■ LITERATURE
Fair to showcase France
Next year’s Taipei International Book Exhibition, scheduled to open on Jan. 27, will play host to a record-setting number of French guests and events as it showcases France as the theme country. The Taipei Book Fair Foundation, the organizer of Asia’s biggest book fair, said France was chosen as the theme country because books in French and those translated from French into Chinese have enjoyed increasing popularity in Taiwan in recent years. Foundation chairman Linden Lin (林載爵) said France would send 40 people to participate at the exhibition, including renowned writers Muriel Barbery and Philippe Claudel, and the number of special activities being held to celebrate the theme country would also be the highest in the show’s history. Some 2,500 French publications will be on display and the National Library of France is preparing to exhibit some of its volumes from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The fair will take place from Jan. 27 to Feb. 1 at the Taipei World Trade Center’s three exhibition halls.
■ TRADE
WTO terms explained
Seven years after the nation joined the WTO, Taiwan has unveiled the first reference book of terms related to and associated with the regulatory body. The book, Decoding WTO — WTO Glossary, was compiled and published by the Chung Hwa Institution for Economic Research at the behest of the Bureau of Foreign Trade. Bureau Deputy Director-General Hsu Chun-fang (徐純芳) said the 372-page book includes more than 6.7 million terms and should become a handy and useful reference for civil servants, academics and professionals. The book’s editor, Hsu Tseng-chi (徐遵慈), said the reference work took a full year to compile. Hsu Tseng-chi first focused on trade-related entries so that the public could grasp WTO jargon.
■ EMPLOYMENT
Activists fear for jobs
The government should reconsider its plan to ease restrictions on hiring foreign caregivers and maids because such a move could deprive local middle-aged and older women of job opportunities, an advocacy group said. The Council of Labor Affairs is considering allowing families that have two members in their 80s or one member older than 90 and a toddler under one year to apply to hire foreign caregivers. “On the surface, the proposed liberalization is not large, but in effect, its impact on local women, particularly those in middle or senior age groups, would be great,” said Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉), chairman of the Peng Wan-ju Foundation. Lin said foreign caregivers usually have to do all sorts of household chores, such as cleaning the house, washing clothes and cooking, jobs that in many cases are currently done by middle-aged local women. As a result, middle-aged and senior women’s job opportunities could be affected, Lin said.
■ ECONOMY
Ministry to convene meeting
The Ministry of Economic Affairs will convene an inter-ministerial meeting before the end of the year to discuss ways of further improving Taiwan’s investment climate for capital from China. Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Huang Chung-chiu (黃重球) said yesterday the ministry would invite officials from the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Education for discussions that are expected to focus on simplification of entry-exit procedures for Chinese investors and their employees, greater access to Taiwan’s schools and other matters, Huang said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
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