SOCIETY
Book fair to focus on Bhutan
When the Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) opens on Feb. 9 at the Taipei World Trade Center, the spotlight will be on Bhutanese culture and literature, the organizers said. The Taipei Book Fair Foundation (TBFF) said it has invited three renowned Bhutanese writers — Karma Ura, Kunzang Choden and Yonden Dargye — to attend the show, one of the world’s largest annual book fairs. The fair will also feature more than 300 Bhutanese publications, and for the first time, three of the Himalayan country’s national treasures, TBFF Executive Director Paulina Lin said at a press conference. One of the treasures is the Eight Thousand Verses of Transcendental Wisdom, a major Buddhist classic that dates back to the 12th century, Lin said.
DIPLOMACY
Wu leaves Burkina Faso
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) left Burkina Faso to return to Taiwan on Wednesday after wrapping up a visit to the West African ally to attend the inauguration ceremony of its president. Prior to his departure, Wu paid a visit to Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, who was sworn in to a new term on Monday. Compaore reiterated during the meeting his country’s friendship with Taiwan and voiced his appreciation for development assistance provided by Taiwan. Wu said he hoped the two countries would continue cooperation in areas such as agriculture, medical care, public health, vocational training, human resource development and photovoltaic power generation. During his stay, Wu also hosted the completion ceremony for a Taiwan-funded vocational training center and visited a new hospital constructed with a loan from a Taiwanese bank.
HEALTHCARE
New cancer drug tested
Taiwan will join six other nations that are participating in the third-stage clinical trial of a new drug to treat late-stage oral cancer, according to Hao Sheng-po (侯勝博), president of the Asian Society of Head and Neck Oncology. Hao said the new drug is meant to work by stimulating the immune systems of patients, before resorting to treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. It is hoped that the patients’ own immune systems will suppress the growth of the cancer cells, he said. Orient Europharma Co, the agent for the US-produced drug, said that in the second-stage clinical trials, the cancer cells in 12 percent of the patients disappeared completely. On average, the cancer cells in all the patients in the test group shrunk by 50 percent, the agent said.
CRIME
Taiwan works with NGOs
Taiwan will work with international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to share its experience in deterring human trafficking operations, vice chairman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ NGO Affairs Committee Wu Rong-chuan (吳榮泉) said yesterday. “There are two programs. One is to build a shelter for victimized teenage girls in Cambodia in association with an American religious NGO, and the other is to provide anti--human trafficking training for Middle East countries,” Wu said. The US State Department moved Taiwan from a list of tier 2 to tier 1 countries in its Trafficking in Persons Report published in June, meaning the Taiwanese government has fully complied with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking as defined by the US Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act.
IMMIGRATION
Embarkation card scrapped
In order the simplify the immigration process, Deputy Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) told a press conference yesterday that the Ministry of the Interior had on Oct. 1 dropped a requirement that departing foreigners fill out an embarkation card. In addition, foreigners with Alien Resident Certificates are no longer required to submit a disembarkation card upon arrival or an embarkation card upon departure, he said. However, he added, the embarkation cards may still be required under certain circumstances, such as when visitors have lost their passports during their stay in Taiwan. The National Immigration Agency will also be launching a new version of the arrival card for visitors, Chien said.
INDUSTRY
Amphibious bus to hit expo
Three amphibious vehicles powered exclusively by green energy are expected to test the waters next month and provide more traveling fun for visitors to the Taipei International Flora Expo, their manufacturer said yesterday. Completely funded, developed and made in Taiwan, the Thru Bus is the first amphibious electric vehicle in the world to use nickel-zinc batteries, according to CMC Magnetics Corp, adding that the nine-seater vehicle emits no carbon dioxide during operation and recharges partially on solar energy. After a test ride on the vehicle’s maiden trip yesterday morning, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said it was a “very smooth” ride. The vehicles will soon begin operation on Taipei’s “Blue Highway,” taking visitors across Keelung River (基隆河) from the expo’s Dajia Riverside Park Area to the Miramar shopping mall on the other side, CMC said. The one-way fare for the 30-minute trip across is NT$250, it said.
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