■ ENTERTAINMENT
Concert at Liberty Square
A concert dubbed "Sing For Freedom" will be held today at the newly re-named Liberty Square in front of the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall, previously known as the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, the concert organizer said yesterday. The concert, organized by the National Cultural Association, will be hosted by local entertainer Joy Topper (豬頭皮) and Janet, host of Fun Taiwan, a Discovery Channel television program. Many foreign and local bands and singers have been invited to play diverse styles of music at the concert which is aimed at expressing peace and freedom, the organizer said.
■ TRAVEL
US visa fee set to increase
The State Department announced on Thursday that it will increase the fee for non-immigrant visa applications by more than 30 percent, from US$100 to US$131, starting on Jan. 1. The American Institute in Taiwan said yesterday that it had not received formal notification from the US State Department about the price hike. According to a statement from the State Department, the rise is to pay for increased processing costs and security enhancements implemented since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "Because of new security-related costs, new information technology systems, and inflation, the US$100 ... fee is lower than the actual cost of processing non-immigrant visas," it said in a statement.
■ AVIATION
Helicopter ban stays: CAA
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said yesterday that except for emergency medical relief, helicopters will still be barred from making rooftop landings. CAA Director General Billy Chang (張國政) was responding to a suggestion by Far Eastern Group (遠東集團) chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東) that the government should open helicopter routes between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and buildings in Taipei that can accommodate helicopter landings in view of the heavy traffic between Taipei and Taoyuan. Hsu's idea was supported by Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌). However, Chang said that easing the restriction would negatively affect aviation safety. Chang said any private or chartered aircraft would have to apply for permission from the CAA before flying already fixed routes.
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
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
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