﹥POLITICS
Municipalities* date set
Four new special municipalities will be inaugurated on Dec. 25 next year after plans to restructure the country*s existing administrative regions have been completed, the Ministry of the Interior announced yesterday. The plans involve upgrading Taipei County, merging Kaohsiung County with Kaohsiung City, which is already a special municipality, merging Taichung City with Taichung County and merging Tainan City with Tainan County to create the special municipalities. The plans, which were approved by the Cabinet on Aug. 27, were promulgated by the ministry yesterday. In line with the plans, the local government elections for the areas that were originally set for December have been postponed to late next year.
﹥DIPLOMACY
AIT closed on Monday
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday said all of its offices in Taiwan will be closed on Monday to observe Labor Day in the US. The offices will re-open on Tuesday, it added. Meanwhile, a separate AIT press statement said representatives from the American Citizen Services Unit will be in Taichung on Sept. 16 to provide consular services to US citizens. ※Only [US] passport renewal and notary services will be available. Payment for services must be made in cash in either NT dollars or US dollars only. Individuals should bring the exact amount as change will not be available,§ the press statement said. No appointments are required, the release said. For more information, check the Web site at Taichung.ait.org.tw/zh/ or call AIT*s Taipei Office at (02)2162-2306.
﹥CRIME
Protected turtles seized
A total of 1,255 protected Chinese yellow margined box turtles have been seized at Kaohsiung International Airport, a customs official said on Monday. The snake-eating turtles, known by the scientific name Cuora flavomarginata, were uncovered last weekend when customs officers inspected an export shipment that was listed as green-headed turtles, or Ocadia sinensis, on the customs declaration form, the official said. It was the first time the Kaohsiung customs office seized such a large number of protected animal species headed abroad, the official said. The turtles were placed in 50 well-packed cases, each containing three plastic containers with dividers. Opening them proved difficult and time-〝consuming, but customs officers discovered the protected turtles in the containers below the top level in each carton. The would-be exporter violated the Wildlife Protection Act (撖蛺婧琲僋蹀跏) and smuggling regulations and will be prosecuted, officials said.
﹥DIPLOMACY
Gambia donates funds
The West African country of Gambia has donated US$700,000 to help with relief projects in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot that wreaked havoc in southern Taiwan last month. Gambian Vice President Isatou Njie-Saidy presented the donation to Ambassador Richard Shih (鉥覅悜) in a ceremony held at the Gambian Presidential Office last Friday, the officials said. Njie-Saidy also expressed condolences and sympathy for typhoon-〝affected Taiwanese on behalf of the Gambia. As of Monday, 85 countries, international organizations, non-government organizations and charities had extended condolences, provided relief supplies or made cash donations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Foreign donations had reached NT$380 million (US$11.52 million).
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