■ Diplomacy
Dominican envoy returns
New Dominican Republic Ambassador Victor Manuel Sanchez Pena presented his credentials to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in a ceremony held at the Presidential Office yesterday. This is the second time that Sanchez has served as his country's resident envoy in Taiwan and Chen welcomed his return. "I hope you'll feel at home in Taiwan. You'll see amazing progress in various aspects. When you left Taiwan four years ago, construction of the Taipei 101 Tower had just got underway. Today, it has been completed and recognized as the world's tallest building," Chen said. Chen recalled that he met with Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez Reyna while attending Panamanian President Martin Torrijos' inauguration ceremony in Panama City in September.
■ Defense
Landmine bill reviewed
The Legislative Yuan's National Defense Committee finished a review yesterday of a bill aimed at controlling the production and use of land-mines in Taiwan. According to the bill, all landmines must be destroyed within four years, with the exception of those intended for training and research purposes. In addition, landmines deployed in minefields must be located and removed completely within 10 years, the bill stipulates.
■ Crime
Money laundering pact inked
Taiwan has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Albania on cooperation in fighting money laundering, the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) said yesterday. The agreement was signed by Liu Hsin-tai (劉新太), director of the MJIB's Money Laundering Prevention and Control Center, and Lutfi Minxhozi, director of Albania's Anti-Money Laundering Commission, on behalf of their respective governments, MJIB officials said. The two sides exchanged instruments of approval of the accord by mail on Nov. 25, the officials said. Under the terms of the MOU, the officials said, the two sides will exchange intelligence about suspicious financial deals and assist each other in efforts to prevent money laundering and other financial crimes. Both Taiwan and Albania are member states of the Egmont Group, an international alliance of financial intelligence units set up to combat money laundering and relevant economic crimes. MJIB officials said the alliance has been exhorting its member states to sign bilateral cooperative agreements to upgrade efficiency in the global campaign against money laundering and other economic crimes.
■ Culture
Band heads to Rose Parade
The Taipei First Girls Senior High School Marching Band is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on Dec. 28 to take part in the New Year's US Rose Parade to be held in Pasadena Jan. 1. The 165-member band will be one of only two foreign bands invited to take part in the annual Rose Parade. It will also be the second time the band has been invited to the Rose Parade in 10 years. Prior to the Rose Parade, the band is scheduled to give a performance at Disneyland in Anaheim, California on Dec. 30, making it the first band from Taiwan to perform at the famous attraction. School alumni based on the US west coast have scrambled to help play host to the students from Taipei. The band traveled to Britain and France in December 2002 to stage a series of performances at the invitation of schools in those two countries.
■ Earthquakes
Two tremors hit east coast
Two moderate earthquakes jolted the southeast of the country yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau said, but no damage or injuries were immediately reported. The first quake had a magnitude of 5.0, while the second, following just 10 minutes later, had a magnitude of 4.7, the bureau said. Both quakes had their epicenter just off the coast of Taitung, about 24km east of Yuli in Hualien County, the bureau said. Yuli is about 180km southeast of Taipei.
■ Agriculture
Officials push oranges
The Council of Agriculture announced yesterday that
it will offer big prizes to buyers of Taiwan's oranges in yet another bid to promote the overproduced fruit. Officials said that from today until Feb. 15, those who buy 3kg of fresh oranges or more than 1.8 liters of fresh orange juice in supermarkets run by farmers' associations or in designated supermarkets will be eligible to enter a ticket draw. The officials said the prizes will include
a 42-inch plasma TV, BenQ mobile phones, bicycles and supermarket coupons, as well as prizewinning organic rice. The winners will be announced on Feb. 28.
■ Government
Online gazette available
Government gazettes will
be available online starting from Jan. 3 next year, Research, Development and Evaluation Commission Chairman Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊雄) announced yesterday. The public will have one-stop access to the latest government notices, reports and other information by checking
the gazette Web site at gazette.nat.gov.tw, which will be updated on a daily basis, Yeh said.
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