■ Cross-strait ties
Continuity' Beijing's policy
China's new government leadership plans no changes in its approach to Taiwan and will maintain a policy of ``continuity,'' a spokesman for the National People's Congress said yesterday. Jiang Enzhu, a spokesman for the congress which convenes today, said he expects the new government leadership to stick with the current approach. "Our Taiwan policy will maintain continuity and stability," Jiang said at a news con-ference in Beijing.
■ Travel
New AIT system for US visas
All US visa applicants are required to follow a new system of calling to arrange a specific appointment time for their applications before processing on-site applica-tions as of March 17, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) announced yesterday. As the phone-appointment system began operation on Monday, an AIT official said yesterday that the institute would begin comprehensive implemen-tation of the scheme in two weeks. The automated line is 0204-58898. Those who want to speak to an operator may call 0204-58989 for non-immigrant-visa appoint-ments. Immigrant and non-immigrant visa applicants who have been refused within the previous 12 months and need to make an appointment should call 0204-58987. Starting March 17, AIT will also require that all visa applications be completed in English.
■ Expatriates
IRS official to visit AIT
An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official will be in Taiwan for a week, starting March 17, to help US taxpayers in preparing their federal tax returns for last year or prior years, the American Institute in Tai-wan (AIT) said in a press release yesterday. The official would be available at the AIT Taipei office from March 17 through the morning of March 19 and then will be at the AIT Kaohsiung office from the afternoon of March 19 through March 21. The free-of-charge service is avail-able by appointment, in 15-minute intervals, the AIT statement said. Those seeking appointment at the AIT Taipei office should call the American Citizen Ser-vices Office at 02-2709-2000, ext. 2014. Those who want appointments in Kaohsiung should call 07-238-7744, ext.15 or 30. Copies of the most frequently used US tax forms are available at the AIT Taipei office or can be accessed from the IRS Web site at www.irs.gov.
■ Vietnam
Taiwanese murdered
A Taiwanese woman who ran three massage shops in Ho Chi Minh City was found murdered with her maid, Vietnamese police said yesterday. The bodies of
Yen Tse-ho and Nguyen Thi Tham were discovered on Saturday by the shops' manager, Van Kiet, said a police officer who declined to be named. Yen moved to Vietnam in 1988 and had been running the massage parlors since then, the policewoman said. An eyewitness saw two women with bloodstained clothing leaving the house the night before the bodies were discovered, the police-woman said.
■ Tourism
Penghu promotion in Macau
Penghu County Commis-sioner Lai Feng-wei (賴峰偉) is scheduled to promote Penghu tourism in Macau today. Air Macau's chartered flight service between Macau and Penghu will be inaugur-ated next month. The service was originally scheduled to begin on Lunar New Year's eve, but was delayed -- reportedly due to a lack of passenger interest.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater