LABOR:
Taichung canceling foreign workers’ contracts
Over the past two months, an average of 20 foreign workers per day have had their work contracts in Taichung County terminated, the county’s Department of Labor Affairs said on Saturday. Since October, a growing number of foreign workers have been let go because of the economic downturn, department director Chang Ta-chun (張大春) said. The department will offer assistance to those workers if necessary, he said. Council of Labor Affairs statistics show that the nation has about 370,000 foreign workers. With the nation’s unemployment rate rising to 5.03 percent in December, some labor groups have called for a reduction in the quote on foreign workers to give more employment opportunities to local workers, council officials recently said.
SCHOOL:
Taiwan scholarship program accepting applications
The Scholarship Program of Taiwan is accepting applications from now until March 31, the Ministry of Education, the National Science Council, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced on Sunday. Citizens of selected countries who are interested in obtaining a degree or studying Mandarin in Taiwan are welcome to apply. Interested applicants can inquire local Republic of China embassies or representative offices or go to www.edu.tw/bicer or MOFA’s Web site at www.mofa.gov.tw for further information. E-mail inquiries can be sent to tsp@deps.ntnu.edu.tw. A total of 427 scholarships will be awarded.
POLICE:
Hsinchu police rewarded with Wang Chien-ming baseball
During the Lunar New Year holidays, the Hsinchu office of the National Immigration Agency (NIA) received a baseball signed by New York Yankees pitcher Wang Chien-ming (王建民) as a sign of gratitude for helping an American woman retrieve a lost passport. On Monday last week around 10.30pm, an American woman reported the loss of her mother’s passport to the NIA’s Hsinchu office. The woman said she, her husband and her mother had been out shopping, and that her mother had lost her wallet in a taxi on their way home. Among other important items things, the wallet contained her passport. The mother was frantic because she had to return to South Korea, where she is working as a teacher, on a flight that she had already booked for last Wednesday. Upon receiving the report, the NIA accompanied the woman to the Nanmen police station in Hsinchu to file a missing passport report. The officer in charge asked staff that were off duty to contact taxi companies to look for the lost wallet. Some officers even asked friends to assist in the search. As a result, the wallet was found intact with all its contents by 6am the next day. As a sign of gratitude, the woman’s husband presented the Hsinchu police station with a baseball that had been signed by Wang.
READY: The CGA said it closely monitored China’s maritime exercise, deployed vessels to shadow the Chinese ships one-on-one and set up emergency response centers Chinese navy and coast guard ships have returned to China, signaling the end of a massive maritime exercise, authorities said yesterday. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) released images it said showed Chinese vessels sailing north in rough seas past Taiwan on Thursday, on their way to China. “All the Chinese coast guard went back to China yesterday, so although they have not officially made any announcement, we consider it over,” CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said. Beijing has not confirmed the drills and the Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not say whether the maneuvers had taken place when asked at a
PUBLIC TRANSPORT: As some roads would be fully or partially closed, people are advised to take the MRT, with services expanded to accommodate more riders This year’s Taipei Marathon, which has obtained its first gold label certification from World Athletics, is to be held from 5am to 1pm tomorrow and would have 28,000 participants. The race is to start from the Taipei City Plaza and would go through major roads throughout the city, with traffic control implemented from 6am to 2pm, officials said. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system and New Taipei City MRT Circle line would start operating at 5am on the day of the race, they said. The race would cover Renai Road, Xinyi Road, Hangzhou S Road, Aiguo east and west roads,
Upon its completion next year, the new Tamkang Bridge (淡江大橋) in New Taipei City is to be an important landmark in Taiwan, alongside Taipei 101, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said today. The bridge is scheduled to be completed in December next year and open to the public in the first half of 2026, connecting New Taipei City’s Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里) districts. It is an asymmetric single-tower suspension bridge, nearly 70 stories tall, designed by world-famous architect Zaha Hadid. The bridge aims to alleviate traffic in Tamsui and on the Guandu Bridge (關渡大橋), in addition to increasing the
People can take the Taipei MRT free of charge if they access it at Nanjing Sanmin Station or Taipei Arena Station on the Green Line between 12am and 6am on Jan. 1, the Taipei Department of Transportation said on Friday, outlining its plans to ease crowding during New Year’s events in the capital. More than 200,000 people are expected to attend New Year’s Eve events in Taipei, with singer A-mei (張惠妹) performing at the Taipei Dome and the city government’s New Year’s Eve party at Taipei City Hall Plaza, the department said. As people have tended to use the MRT’s Blue or
RSS