CULTURE
Expo visitors reach 2 million
The number of visitors to the Taipei International Flora Expo broke the 2 million mark yesterday, slightly earlier than the organizers had projected. The 2 millionth visitor was recorded at 10:11am, less than three weeks after the 1 millionth visitor was recorded on Nov. 27, Taipei International Flora Expo Operational Headquarters said. The visitor total was about 10 percent ahead of the organizers’ original expectations. The organizers could not immediately identify the 2 millionth visitor because the exposition has many entrances and ticket booths. So the expo organizers gave vouchers to the 1,999,500th visitor and the 999 visitors who followed, from which the 2 millionth visitor was chosen in a draw later yesterday. The winner received an EVA Airways ticket to an Asian destination.
ECONOMY
Singapore pact talks to start
Taiwan and Singapore will start talks on the possible signing of an economic partnership agreement early next year, a joint statement released by the Singapore Trade Office in Taipei and the Taipei Representative Office in Singapore said yesterday. Taiwan and Singapore, which are both members of the WTO, have completed their own feasibility studies and concluded that such an agreement “would offer significant mutual benefits,” the statement said. Should the formal negotiations result in a deal, the trade pact would be titled: “Agreement between Singapore and the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu on Economic Partnership,” according to the statement.
CRIME
Smuggling ring busted
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) announced on Tuesday that it has smashed a cross-border human smuggling ring, the largest in Asia, after more than a year of cooperation with its counterparts in Hong Kong, Thailand, the UK and the US. The NIA said it detained seven suspects and summoned seven others for questioning, all of whom have been handed over to the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office. Ten members of the ring are still at large. The NIA said the ring made more than NT$100 million (US$3.3 million) in profits from more than 30 cases, helping Chinese to illegally enter the US, Canada, the UK or the Netherlands. The ring made of profit of US$50,000 to US$70,000 for every stowaway they smuggled into these countries. Through ads on the Internet or in newspapers, the criminal ring recruited members to serve as middlemen who were responsible for traveling to Hong Kong or Bangkok, where they handed forged Republic of China passports and boarding passes to the Chinese.
SPORTS
SAC vows to protect Yang
Sports Affairs Council (SAC) Minister Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) yesterday promised to protect the rights of taekwondo athlete Yang Shu-chun (楊淑君) as Yang prepares to attend a disciplinary meeting held by the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF). Tai said the SAC has sent personnel to travel to South Korea with Yang to offer her assistance. Yang is scheduled to fly to Seoul tomorrow to attend a disciplinary hearing regarding her controversial dismissal from the women’s under-49kg division at the Asian Games on Nov. 17. The disqualification sparked a public outcry at the Asian Taekwondo Union, which accused Yang of cheating. Taiwan filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) related to the disqualification. Tai said yesterday that CAS has decided to accept the case.
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