■ POLITICS
Swiss office marks 25 years
Taiwan's democratic development has been amazing, said Hans-Peter Fitze, deputy director of the Trade Office of Swiss Industries, in a press conference yesterday marking the 25th anniversary of the Swiss office in Taipei. Fitze said that approximately 50,000 Taiwanese tourists travel to Switzerland annually and he hoped to see the figure increase. Cultural and commerce exchanges have also increased over the years, he said. To celebrate 25 years of friendship, the Swiss office will hold a concert tomorrow featuring Swiss musician Eliana Burki, who will play the alphorn -- a traditional instrument played by Swiss mountain dwellers -- to modern funk and jazz tunes. The 24-year-old Burki started playing the 3m long instrument at the age of six. She will perform compositions from her own album, as well as some Taiwanese Aboriginal songs. The free event will start at 4pm at the Taipei Museum of Drinking Water.
■ CULTURE
Hakka opera next weekend
Rom Shing Hakka Opera Troupe (榮興客家採茶劇團) will present Brave Heart of 1895 (乙未丹心), a new composition based on traditional Hakka opera, in Taipei next Friday to Sunday. Produced in cooperation with the Council for Hakka Affairs, Brave Heart recounts the life of Wu Tang-hsing (吳湯興), a legendary resistance leader during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. It will be shown at the Novel Hall at No. 3-1 Songshou Road. For more information, visit the council's Web site at www.hakka.gov.tw.
■ SECURITY
Hacking not encouraged
The National Security Bureau (NSB) has never advocated hacking activities nor any other type of attack on computer and Internet systems at home or abroad, the bureau said in a news release on Thursday. The statement was issued in response to a report by the Chinese-language China Times alleging that the NSB, the Ministry of National Defense and the Bureau of Military Intelligence often hack into each other's systems. Dismissing the report, the NSB said that Taiwan is a democratic country under the rule of law and the bureau has always behaved in line with the law. Any attempt to hack into a computer system or to steal classified information is illegal, it said. The NSB also responded to a recent report by the Chinese media accusing Taiwan's military and intelligence agencies of launching Internet attacks and stealing confidential data from China. The NSB said the report was an attempt by the Chinese government to shift attention away from Chinese hackers' attacks on other countries to collect intelligence.
■ AGRICULTURE
Strawberries top fruity poll
Strawberries beat mangoes to become the nation's No.1 fruit, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday. In a poll to determine the top 10 most popular fruits produced in the country, strawberries garnered approximately 197,000 votes with mangoes a close second with 187,000 votes. The poll ended on Wednesday. Strawberries were said to have been trailing behind mangoes and did not lead the race until three hours before the poll ended. The result was credited to a successful mobilization initiated by the Da Hu Farmers Association. The other eight fruits in the top 10 list were bell fruits, buddha head fruits, pears, lychees, grapes, bananas, watermelons and pineapples.
■ TOURISM
Weather limits sightseeing
The number of visits to local sightseeing spots and amusement parks dropped to 6.33 million in the first nine months of the year, a 16.32 percent reduction from the same period last year, statistics released by the Tourism Bureau this week show. The drop was attributed to rainy weather triggered by several cold fronts in March and April and four typhoons in August and September, Tourism Bureau officials said. They said the bureau would devise measures to help boost the local tourism industry.
■ SPORTS
Kaohsiung mulls Wang deal
The Kaohsiung City Government is studying the feasibility of renewing an agreement with the New York Yankees' Taiwanese pitcher Wang Chien-ming (王建民) to extend his services as spokesman for the 2009 World Games to be held in the city, an official said yesterday. Shih Che (史哲), director of the city's Department of Information, who is in charge of marketing for the World Games, told reporters that his department would conduct a further study on the issue with Chi Cheng (紀政), chief executive of the Kaohsiung Organizing Committee for the 2009 World Games, before making a final decision. Kaohsiung last year invited Wang to serve as the spokesman of the Games by paying his agent US$500,000 for a series of endorsement activities. The World Games, scheduled for July 17 to July 26, will be the largest international sporting event ever held in Taiwan. An estimated 6,000 athletes are expected to take part.
■ AGRICULTURE
Coast Guard seizes crabs
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) seized 3.5 tonnes of smuggled hairy crabs yesterday, the largest ever haul of its kind, CGA officials said. The seizure was made in Luchu Township (蘆竹), Taoyuan County, in a raid by the CGA's North Coast Patrol Office. They had received a tip-off that a ring was preparing to smuggle a large quantity of hairy crabs from China into Taiwan, the officials said. They said the hairy crabs have been sent to quarantine authorities for inspection to determine if they were contaminated with any toxins.
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