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.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its