■EDUCATION
OCAC sponsors instructors
To accommodate the growing demand for teachers in the US, the Overseas Compatriots Affairs Commission (OCAC) plans to send three professional language instructors to the US to speak on teaching methods and related courses. The lectures will be held from July 17 to July 22 in New York and New Jersey, the commission said. The team will consist of a professor from Taipei Municipal University of Education, a lecturer from Chinese Cultural University and a teacher of literature from Donghu Junior High School. For more information, visit www.ocac.gov.tw.
■SOCIETY
Bastille Day on Saturday
In celebration of France’s National Day, the French Association in Taiwan is hosting the annual French Bastille Day-Grand Ball Fest on Saturday, featuring a live Latino band and other musical entertainment at the Huashan Culture Center in Taipei. The ball has become one of the association’s most highly anticipated events, with more than 500 people participating last year. This year’s celebration will also feature a food buffet and two bars. All party-goers will be invited to sing together the French national anthem, La Marseille. The party will take place this Saturday from 6:30pm to 2am on Sunday. The entrance fees are NT$200 for students, NT$250 for association members and NT$300 for non-members. Children under 12 can get in for free. For more information, check out www.taiwanaccueil.com.
■EDUCATION
City to give student grants
The Kaohsiung City Government approved a measure on Tuesday to grant a monthly stipend of NT$3,000 to qualified foreign students enrolled at the city’s universities and colleges starting next year. Tsai Ching-hua (蔡清華), director of the city’s Bureau of Education, said the bureau would first establish the number of foreign students studying in Kaohsiung’s institutes of higher learning before working out a budget for the scholarship program. He added the program next year would probably begin with 10 scholarships and that applications by foreign students from Kaohsiung’s sister cities would be given first consideration. Kaohsiung has 12 sister cities: Colorado Springs, Colorado; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Pusan, South Korea; Cebu, Philippines; Danang, Vietnam; Barranquilla, Colombia; Cartago, Costa Rica; Durban, South Africa; Blantyre, Malawi; and Brisbane, Australia.
■ENVIRONMENT
Donor supports ad removal
The Taipei City Department of Environmental Protection has recently received a cash donation of NT$1.23 million (US$40,500) from a civic group requesting the money be spent on cleaning out tiny ads stuck on public facilities, such as street lights and utility poles. The donor, requesting anonymity, is a private foundation in Taichung, said Liang Hung-lang (梁宏郎), a department official, yesterday. Since April, the city government has implemented a scheme that awards city-employed cleaners and volunteers who help eliminate illegal street ads, Liang said. Workers have removed more than 100,000 ads a month, receiving a cash award of NT$100 for every 400 ads removed. The city employs 4,000 street sweepers at the environmental protection department and has 1,646 city volunteers that help in removing the ads that mar the city’s appearance, Liang said.
■TRANSPORTATION
Scooter safety event planned
A scooter safety awareness event will be held at the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Xinyi New Life Square in Taipei’s Xinyi District on Saturday, the Taipei City Government’s Department of Transportation said yesterday. Among those scheduled to attend the event are entertainers “A-Ken” and the “Blackie’s Teenage Club Beauties,” the department said. Government statistics show that scooter riders account for more than half of all traffic injuries in Taipei City, with 40 percent to 50 percent of those injured being people under the age of 24. The figures indicate that there is an urgent need to strengthen the concept of scooter safety among young people, the department said. The event will also feature a lucky draw. Visitors will have a chance to win various prizes, including a limited-edition scooter, a Sony PlayStation Portable, and a GPS-enabled cellphone, the department said.
■ENERGY
Tainan lights turning green
Tainan City yesterday announced new measures to help conserve energy, including having regular light bulbs at the city’s historic sites replaced by power-saving bulbs or LED lights to cope with surging electricity rates. City Government officials said the lights at the Tainan City Cultural Center and Koxinga’s Shrine had already been replaced earlier this year. City officials said they have applied to the Tourism Bureau for NT$5 million (US$163,930) to be used in the energy-conservation project. Once they receive the money, they will be able to replace the lights at all of the city’s historic sites, the officials said. The city’s historical sites are lit up until 10pm. City officials said that, to maintain the scenic quality of the city, the hours when the sites are lit up would not be shortened.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
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