■ SOCIETY
Nurse commits suicide
A nurse at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Keelung succumbed to the pressure of mounting credit card debts and committed suicide on Friday, police said yesterday. Tsai Yu-ting (蔡玉婷) died by draining her own blood, they said. Her younger sister found her body in bed with a blood transfusion pipe and a bucket full of blood at her side. Tsai said in a suicide note that when her father, a fishing boat owner, ran up heavy debts several years ago, she borrowed large sums of money from a bank to help him, but did not tell him where the money came from. After years of struggling to pay the debts with her limited salary at the hospital, she ended her life to settle the debts once and for all, the note said. Police said statistics show that on average, 40 people committed suicide every month because of heavy credit card debts between 2006 and last year.
■POLITICS
DPP pans Ma over index dip
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said yesterday the stock market’s 5 percent, or 460.67 points, drop last week was a reflection of the public’s lack of confidence in President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) policies and capabilities. “The TAIEX dropped approximately 5 percent within the past five business days. An estimated NT$1.17 trillion [US$39 billion] vaporized just like that. Although economics was a major issue in Ma’s campaign [for office], it is obvious that he has failed to convince the public in that regard,” a press release by the DPP caucus read. As the central government plans to raise gas and utilities prices, the caucus warned that the situation could go from bad to worse and the TAIEX could continue to decline, reflecting investors’ disappointment with and lack of confidence in the new government.
■CULTURE
Confucius camp in August
Local and foreign youths, aged 15 to 17, are invited to participate in the annual Confucius rite of passage camp hosted by Tainan City Government, the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) said yesterday. The camp aims to help young people learn more about the values of gratitude, responsibility and independence, TECRO said. All participants will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the camp, which will run from Aug. 2 to Aug. 7. The entire camp will be conducted in Mandarin and participants would be responsible for their own transportation. Registration ends on July 15. Application forms can be downloaded from the TECRO cultural division Web site at www.moetwdc.org/English/index.html.
■ARTS
Sculptors in German show
Two award-winning Taiwanese woodcarving artists have been invited to demonstrate their creative skills at a workshop held alongside the 2008 International Woodsculptor Symposium in Annaberg-Buchholz, a town in the Free State of Saxony in Germany, from June 14 to June 21. Chen De-Lung (陳德隆) and Tseng An-kuo (曾安國), who both have their own studios in Sanyi (三義) — a small town in Miaoli County renowned for its woodcarving industry — will compete with 23 other wood sculptors from Germany and six other countries in the creative camp called “Wood Sculptors Create Great Works.” Chen’s specialty is carving historical figures, animals and insects, while Tseng is an expert in carving Buddha statues, orchid flowers and female figures. Both of them have won numerous awards in domestic competitions since 1992.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
Taiwan is to extend its visa-waiver program for Philippine passport holders for another year, starting on Aug. 1, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said on Friday. Lin made the announcement during a reception in Taipei marking the 127th anniversary of Philippine independence and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The decision reflected Taiwan’s commitment to deepening exchanges with the Philippines, the statement cited Lin as saying, adding that it was a key partner under the New Southbound Policy launched in 2016. Lin also expressed hope
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