■ FOREIGN AID
Taiwan helps Guatemala
Taiwan has donated US$400,000 to Guatemala to help the country repair and preserve historical sites damaged by earthquakes, a press statement released on Friday by Taiwan’s embassy in Guatemala said. Taiwanese Ambassador Sun Ta-cheng (孫大成) handed over the donation to the National Protection Council of Antigua Guatemala at the newly renovated Capuchinas Museum, and it was accepted by Sergio Cruz Cortez, who is in charge of historical sites protection. In 2004, then vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) initiated a historical site protection project during a visit to the city of Antigua. On another visit in 2005, she signed a letter of intent under which Taiwan would cooperate with Guatemala to restore and preserve historical sites. The agreement stated that Taiwan would donate a total of US$700,000 in two stages to assist with the restoration of the Capuchinas Museum and a monastery in Antigua.
■ ENVIRONMENT
EPA urges collective burning
The Changhua County Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) is pushing for collective burning and a reduction in the amount of paper ghost money burned during this year’s Chungyuan Pudu (中元普渡), a month-long period when the gates of hell are said to open and spirits are free to roam the Earth. The organization is asking communities, companies or temples that burn large amounts of paper money to contact the EPA to do the burning instead. The EPA said it hoped the public would become more environmentally friendly. Instead of burning ghost money, they could use flowers, fruits, or vegetables to worship, they suggested. The EPA said it would be better if people could collectively burn ghost money at the furnace in Hsichou (溪州), which has a pollution control and steam-electricity co-generation system. They added that it would reduce air pollution caused by outdoor burning and lessen the risk of fires caused by sparks from the use of open-air furnaces. The EPA also invited a Buddhist master to perform a cleansing ceremony for the furnace, so the public would feel more at ease using the facility.
■ EDUCATION
Outstanding students arrive
A group of outstanding Chinese college students arrived in Hsinchu on Sunday on a study tour, officials of Hsinchu City-based National Tsing Hua University said yesterday. A total of 76 students from 12 Chinese colleges met with host families during a ceremony attended on Sunday by Hsinchu Mayor Lin Junq-tzer (林政則) at the university campus, the officials said. Lin welcomed the students, who are on the six-week study tour, and encouraged host families to help them gain a better understanding of Taiwanese culture.
■ FOOD SAFETY
Old food found on shelves
Taipei City’s Bureau of Health announced yesterday that an inspection of the city’s grocery stores and supermarkets earlier this month found a total of nine food products had expired. In addition to a request by the bureau to remove the expired products from the shelves immediately, the storeowners face fines of between NT$30,000 (US$986) and NT$150,000. The bureau has called on shoppers to pay attention to expiration dates and the appearance of food before purchase. The bureau added that anyone who discovers illegal products being sold at a store should report it to the authorities. A reward of 5 percent of the total fine if the case is upheld is on offer.
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