■ Diplomacy
Reagan book open
In memory of the late US president Ronald Reagan, who passed away June 5, a condolence book will be available for signing at the American Cultural Center in Taipei. The center is located at the International Trade Building, Room 2101, 21st Floor, 333 Keelung Road, Section 1. The center will be open from 8am to 5pm today and Monday for those who wish to sign the book. The center will be closed tomorrow because the White House has declared June 11 a national day of mourning for Americans.
■ Charity
TAS group plans rummage
The Taipei American School Orphanage Club will hold its 34th annual fundraising rummage sale on Saturday from 10am to 5pm. On sale will be clothes, shoes, toys, appliances, household goods and much, much more. The rummage sale will be held in the school's lobby and forecourt. Proceeds will help fund the club's many projects, which include monthly outings to the Cathwel Orphanage, weekly reading sessions for blind students and contributions to relief efforts in Taiwan and several other countries. The Orphanage Club is TAS' oldest student organizations and its largest club, with scores of students from both the middle and upper schools.
■ Diplomacy
Questions asked in Dominica
Dominica's opposition leader on Tuesday urged the government to release documents detailing how the Caribbean island established diplomatic ties with China after ending them with Taiwan in March. Opposition leader Edison James said Prime Minster Roosevelt Skerrit should let legislators review an original of a pact signed with China instead of the unsigned reproduction Skerrit read to the House last month. China and Dominica signed a pact that Skerrit said promises more than US$100 million in Chinese aid for infrastructure projects, including a new sports stadium. Because the document hasn't been made public, however, the opposition doubts the claims. Skerrit has not responded to James' request.
■ Crime
Illegal betel nuts seized
Taipei Custom officials reported yesterday that they had intercepted 3,775kg of smuggled betel nuts that arrived from Thailand at CKS International Airport on Tuesday disguised as a shipment of cotton fiber. The shipment was sent to a warehouse for re-export. The officials said they believe the sender might try to switch the betel nuts with old electronic pianos at the warehouse and they are trying to trace the sender. Betel nuts can be imported from Thailand, but import duties go as high as NT$810 (US$24) per kilogram. Officials said that as the supply of local betel nuts has been unable to meet demand, so smuggling the nuts from Thailand is a lucrative option. Last Friday officials seized 765kg of smuggled betel nuts from Thailand.
■ Festivals
MOEA selling dumplings
With the Dragon Boat Festival approaching and people keen to eat traditional tzongtze (rice dumplings) to celebrate the day, the Ministry of Economic Affairs is offering a number of regional tzongtze variations via the Internet. The Web site (www.mymarket.com.tw) features 40 well-known tzongtze styles from 15 or so traditional markets across the country, including Huchou-style and health-conscious from the old Southgate Market in Taipei, Aboriginal style from Taitung and others from Kaohsiung and Changhua.
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