Pedestrian safety is among four new policies to be implemented from Jan. 1, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday.
The ministry is to provide subsidies for local governments to improve road safety and protect pedestrians’ rights, which is one of four policy areas that are to take effect in the new year, it said.
The pedestrian program aims to enhance safety at intersections; address sidewalk issues, with a focus on eliminating changes of level; improve road safety in areas around schools where there are high accident rates; set up demonstration areas with low speed limits and safety facilities; move telephone poles and street lights that block sidewalk access; and improve safety at intersections without traffic lights, it said.
Photo: Huang Hsin-po, Taipei Times
Also starting next year, mandatory military service is to be restored to one year for all males born after Jan. 1, 2005, including those who enter alternative military service, it said.
Males born after Jan. 1, 2005, can apply for alternative military service due to family and religious reasons as long as the demand for standing forces and auxiliary forces is met, it said.
Amendments to the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法) approved in May are to be implemented in stages next year, the ministry said.
From Jan. 1, foreigners who have divorced a Taiwanese due to domestic violence and have not remarried would be allowed to continue their residence, the amendments say.
Taiwanese who do not have household registration in Taiwan, such as those born abroad to Taiwanese parents, can apply for residence after living legally in Taiwan for at least 183 days per year for five consecutive years, the amendments say.
From March 1, the National Immigration Agency would be able to repeatedly detain foreigners who have been ordered to exit Taiwan, but are unable to leave, the amendments say.
Amendments to the Human Trafficking Prevention Act (人口販運防制法), which were passed in May, are also to take effect on Jan. 1, the ministry said.
The changes to the human trafficking laws expand the definition of exploitation to include forcing people to commit criminal acts.
Those who contravene the law would face a prison sentence of one to seven years, the new rules say.
If people who have been subjected to human trafficking disagree with the results of an investigation, they can submit written objections to the authority superior to the investigating unit, the updated laws say.
People who are convicted of human trafficking would be barred from government procurement programs for five years, the amendments say.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS