■ Legislative Yuan
Pro-Thailand group formed
Legislators from across the political spectrum formed an association yesterday to promote exchanges with Thailand's parliament. More than 10 Thai lawmakers, headed by Senator Tawil Praisont, are in Taipei to attend the inaugural ceremony of the Taiwan-Thailand Parliamentary Friendship Association (TTPFA). Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) and many lawmakers were also present at the ceremony. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chuang-chin (邱創進), one of the founders of the new organization, said the group will do its utmost to forge contacts and friendship with Thai lawmakers. "We hope our efforts can help make the Thai parliament become more supportive of Taiwan on major international issues," Chiu said.
■ Health
Condoms on demand
Hotels, hot springs and sauna parlors may be ordered to make condoms available to their customers in the latest attempt to curb the spread of AIDS, a cabinet official said yesterday. Owners of these facilities who fail to provide condoms through vending machines or on demand face a maximum fine of NT$30,000 if draft amendments to the AIDS Prevention Act (愛滋病防護法) approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday are passed by the legislature. A survey by Taipei's National Yang Ming University found that some 6.4 percent of gay sauna patrons were HIV carriers but only 40 percent of customers used condoms when having sex there. The government's move is meant to curb the spread of the disease, which has killed 920 people out of 5,283 recorded HIV carriers as of the end of last month. The number of carriers represents a 19-percent rise from a year ago.
■ Flowers
Orchid conference to open
The Eighth Asia-Pacific Orchid Conference will be held from March 6 to March 14 in Jenteh Township, Tainan County. It will be the first time Taiwan has hosted the event, one of the most important world-class events in its field, according to the Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday. Meanwhile, a large-scale orchid exhibition will be held in Taiwan to demonstrate varied applications of orchids in Taiwan. Because of its climate, Tainan County has been one of most important bases for the orchid industry in Taiwan for decades. COA officials said that Taiwan, the orchid kingdom, accounts for 77 percent of output of orchids globally. The exhibition could attract about 150,000 visitors. Local residents are encouraged to go to the exhibition, which has been listed as one of the events for Taiwan Tourism Year. For more information, visit the Web site www.apoc8.org.tw.
■ Seismic Activity
Two quakes jolt east coast
Two earthquakes shook eastern Taiwan yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau said, but no damage or injuries were immediately reported. A 4.5-magnitude quake first hit the southeastern coastal area at 10:09am around the township of Chengkung, 200km southeast of Taipei, the bureau said. Hours later, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake jolted the northeastern coast at 12:33pm, though it was centered under the Pacific Ocean far from shore, the bureau said. The tremor's epicenter was about 113km southeast of the fishing port of Nan'ao in Ilan County, and was felt in Taipei.
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