CRIME
Stanton meets MOJ boss
American Institute in Taiwan Director William Stanton said yesterday that Taiwan had made good progress in combating human trafficking. Before a closed-door meeting with Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) at the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), Stanton told reporters that he appreciated the effort Taiwan was making in combatting sex trafficking. He also said the US and Taiwan could reach agreements on a number of judicial issues — including passport security and extradition of fugitives, before adding that he and Tseng were “old friends.” Stanton refused to comment on Taiwan’s execution of several death row prisoners earlier this year or whether the US would extradite white collar criminals such as former Rebar Group chairman Wang You-theng (王又曾), who fled to the US in 2007.
TRAVEL
MOTC launches sign contest
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) yesterday invited the public to submit examples of problematic bilingual signs to help improve travel for foreign visitors. People who upload photos of incorrect signs at railway stations, freeway service areas or national scenic areas administrated by the ministry to its Facebook page before the end of January will have the chance to win a Wii or an iPod, each worth more than NT$10,000, the ministry said. Many bilingual traffic signs are incorrect and can confuse visitors or otherwise inconvenience them, ministry officials said, who cited one sign that reads “Beware of missing foot,” instead of simply saying “Unstable footing.”
TRAVEL
Visa plan boosts UK visits
The UK’s inclusion of Taiwan in its visa-exemption scheme from March last year has led to a marked increase in the number of Taiwanese visitors, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. A total of 80,935 Taiwanese visited the UK last year, Department of European Affairs Director-General James Lee (李光章) said. That was a 56 percent increase over the 51,930 who visited in 2008, he said, citing statistics from the UK Border Agency. “The number of short-term visitors rose 107 percent rise from 2008 to 2009, and 150 percent — from 18,655 to 46,720 — if business travelers were differentiated from short-term visitors,” Lee said. Bilateral relations have also become closer since the UK granted visa-free privileges, he said. The number of short-term students heading to the UK also increased, from 1,940 in 2008 to 3,305 last year, he said.
CRIME
Baseball player still held
A Nicaraguan baseball player accused of sexual assault has not been bailed and remains at the Taichung Detention Center, the Taichung District Prosecutors Office said yesterday.
Gustavo Horacio Lopez came to Taiwan with his team for the Intercontinental Cup baseball tournament, which ended on Sunday. He has been accused of sexually assaulting a Taiwanese woman in a hotel on the evening of Oct. 26. He cannot afford the NT$200,000 bail and no one has come forward to pay the bond on his behalf, chief Prosecutor Wu Tso-yan (吳祚延) said. If the investigation is not closed and no one posts bail by the time Lopez’s initial detention period ends in next month, prosecutors could apply to keep Lopez behind bars for another two months.
HEALTH
Some Yogurt drinks fail
More than 10 percent of diluted yogurt drinks sold locally were found to be substandard, according to the Taipei County Public Health Bureau. Results of a test conducted by the bureau showed two of the 15 diluted yogurt drink brands were found to contain far fewer lactobacillus bacteria than the level set by the Department of Health (DOH). One of the two substandard products contained only 7,600 lactobacillus bacterium per gram — an extremely small amount compared with the 1 million lactobacillus bacterium per gram required by the DOH. Vendors throughout the county have been ordered to remove the items from their shelves, bureau officials said. Noting that manufacturers of the substandard products were located in Hsinchu County, the officials said they have informed the Hsinchu County Government of its test results and asked that the producers be ordered to make improvements within an appropriate period.
TRANSPORTATION
Gondola adds glass cars
Twenty cars equipped with transparent, crystal-like glass floors joined the Maokong Gondola service on Tuesday. The glass-floored cars, dubbed the “Eyes of Maokong Gondola,” allow passengers to better enjoy the scenery during the ride between the southern suburb of Muzha (木柵) and the mountainous Maokong (貓空) area, gondola operator Taipei Mass Rapid Transit Corp said. The cars were manufactured by Sigma, a subsidy of French company Poma, a world leader in building cable-driven lift systems, the Taipei-based company said. The Maokong Gondola, which has regularly maintained 129 cars in operation, has provided 7.58 million rides to tourists since it was inaugurated on July 4, 2007, despite a service hiatus of 18 months through March because of safety concerns.
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