EDUCATION
McGill to host academy
Montreal’s McGill University recently signed a letter of intent with Taiwan’s representative office in Canada to become a liaison for the Taiwan Academy in Canada. Representative to Canada David Lee (李大維) said McGill would be the third university in Canada to serve as a liaison for the Taiwan Academy following the University of Ottawa and University of Toronto. Taipei has promoted the Taiwan Academy as a way to build on Taiwan’s status as a center of Chinese culture and spread its diverse culture around the world. It has used Taiwan’s advanced information and digital technology to bring together Mandarin Chinese and traditional character instruction, Taiwan studies and Sinology research, and Taiwan’s diverse culture in a single platform, Lee said.
WEATHER
Warm, foggy skies expected
Taiwan is likely to see much warmer and drier weather today and tomorrow, but chances of fog will increase in several regions, the Central Weather Bureau said. As the strength of a cold air front weakens, daytime temperatures are expected to rise by 3°C and 5°C nationwide, with the stable weather pattern likely to last until tomorrow, the bureau said. Chances of rain should decrease in most parts of the country. However, the bureau said that the rising temperatures could bring higher chances of fog, especially in western Taiwan and Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu.
LABOR
Survey finds violations
Nearly 30 percent of polled businesses violated the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) last year, including branches of fast-food restaurant chains, a survey released by the Council of Labor Affairs said on Tuesday. Some 2,591 of the 8,713 firms polled were punished or reported to the authorities for violation of the act last year, the council said in a statement. The top three violators were KFC, McDonald’s and state-owned Chunghwa Post, recording 32, 29 and 21 violations respectively, for infractions such as not paying extra wages on holiday shifts and not correctly documenting shift times. Of the violators, 9.3 percent made their workers regularly work overtime, 9.2 percent did not pay workers for the extra hours and 4.6 percent lacked legally required shift records, the survey found. The businesses could face fines up to NT$300,000 for violations concerning overtime and lack of payment, the council said.
SPACE
Mars visible on Sunday
Mars is set to dominate the night sky on Sunday as it reaches its closest approach to Earth in more than two years, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Tuesday. The opposition of the red planet, an event which occurs when the Earth falls between the sun and Mars, will offer people the best view of Mars until 2014, the museum said. Although the scope of the celestial event, which happens about every 26 months, will be the smallest opposition of Mars during the period from 2001 to 2025, the museum said, the planet is still likely to be 10 times brighter than usual. In addition, it said observation conditions might be more ideal this year than in the past. “If we are lucky to have clear night skies, chances are high that the planet’s white polar caps will be visible,” said Chang Kuei-lan (張桂蘭), an assistant researcher at the museum. Even if astronomy buffs miss the chance on Sunday, Chang said, Mars will remain prominent during the next two months or so because it moves relatively slowly around the sun.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
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