■Crime
Contraband cigarettes found
More than 100 cartons of Japanese and British cigarettes were found floating at sea off the coastline of Pingtung County yesterday morning. A coastal patrol team discovered the cigarettes near the coastline between Linbian and Hsiko at 10am but did not find any suspects after searching the fishing boats in the area. The cigarettes, worth about NT$2.5 million (US$72,000), were probably dropped by a fishing boat for other smugglers to pick up. An investigation is underway.
■ Charity
Fast to be held in Taichung
An annual "30-hour fast," designed to give participants the experience of feeling hunger and prompt them to make generous donations to help the needy, will be launched Aug. 9 in Taichung, sponsors of the event announced yesterday. Chuan Kuo-cheng (全國成), director of the regional office of World Vision Taiwan (WVT) said that this year's fast is expected to attract 4,000 participants, each of whom will donate NT$1,000 (US$27.7) or NT$500 to help victims of war and famine. The theme of this year's fast -- the 14th of its kind since 1989 -- is "halve your consumption and make generous donations," Chuan said. He called on the public to take part in the fast to help those who are on the brink of death. WVT, one of nation's major charity organizations, sponsors other relief and medical aid activities in many countries around the world.
■ Education
Yu announces conference
Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday that the Ministry of Education is scheduled to call a national education conference in September to address issues resulting from various education-reform programs implemented over the past decade. Yu made the remarks after more than 100 local academics presented a petition on Sunday demanding that the government reverse reforms that they claimed have lowered the quality of high-school graduates. Yu said all civic groups and members of the public are welcome to present opinions and options regarding education reforms for discussion at the planned conference. Yu said now is the time to review the reforms and make adjustments in tune with the changing environment, to cater to the needs of students. He said some of the reform programs have helped resolve problems, although some other operations have been flawed.
■ Diplomacy
Council invites Japanese
Taichung County Council Speaker Chang Ching-tang (張清堂) invited his counterpart from Japan's Hyogo Prefecture yesterday to organize a mission to visit the county in October. Chang said that he decided to extend his invitation in recognition of the Japan-Taiwan Councilors Association's recent donation to the Taichung County Council to help the battle against SARS. The association donated ?500,000 (US$4,200) to the council in late June, Chang said. Pointing out that the council has long maintained close relations with the Japan-Taiwan Councilors Association, with the two sides exchanging frequent visits, Chang said the association is expected to send a mission to attend an inauguration ceremony for a dormitory at Chien Min Primary School, rebuilt with donations made by the association. He also disclosed that a group of Taichung councilors is scheduled to visit Hyogo Prefecture late this year or early next year.
Agencies
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
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
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