CRIME
Men arrested in Philippines
Two Taiwanese were arrested in the Philippine province of Batangas yesterday on charges of illegal mining, according to local police. A brief report by Batangas police said that a 69-year-old man from Taipei, identified only by his surname, Wang (王), along with an accomplice also named Wang from Kaohsiung, were arrested in Tanauan City in northeastern Batangas. Local police said the two men employed several people to engage in the illegal activity and were reported to police by other villagers. According to Philippine environment protection authorities, the two men did not have mining licenses.
TRANSPORT
EVA to fly to NYC direct
EVA Airways said it would launch direct round-trip flights from Taipei to New York City beginning on June 18, which will shorten flight times by nearly three hours. The new schedule will make EVA, the country’s second-biggest international carrier, the only airline to fly nonstop between Taoyuan International Airport and John F Kennedy International Airport in both directions. EVA Air currently flies four weekly flights nonstop from Taipei to New York, but makes a refueling stop in Anchorage, Alaska on the return flight because of strong headwinds. The carrier has decided to sacrifice the amount of cargo it carries on the New York--Taipei leg to allow its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to cover the distance without refueling. Flight time on the return leg will be 15 hours and 50 minutes, compared with 14 hours and 55 minutes for the Taipei-New York leg.
TOURISM
Swiss draw hotel students
The number of Taiwanese students studying hotel management in Switzerland has steadily increased over the past year since the government started devoting more effort to promoting tourism, the Swiss representative office said. Travel restrictions between Taiwan and China have been relaxed, which has resulted in higher demand for international-standard hospitality management personnel in Taiwan, according to the Trade Office of Swiss Industries (TOSI) in Taipei. The TOSI’s data showed that 224 student visas were issued last year, of which 169, or about 75 percent, were for people wishing to study hospitality management, compared to an annual average of about 150 over the past decade. Switzerland, which is known for its hotel and hospitality management education, is home to several top-ranked schools in the sector, including Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, Les Roches International School of Hotel Management and the Glion Institute of Higher Education.
SPORT
Kinmen marathon today
Runners from 15 countries or regions around the world will take part in the fifth Kinmen Marathon today, with last year’s winner in the women’s race returning to defend her title. A total of 2,492 runners from the US, Canada, Russia, Portugal, Japan, China and many other countries have signed up for the race, organizers said. The winners in the men’s and women’s race will receive cash prizes of NT$200,000 (US$6,760) and NT$100,000, respectively. Another NT$100,000 is available for any runner who breaks the all-comers record set at the Taipei International Marathon (men: 2:10:24, women: 2:27:36). A total of 1,405 people have signed up for the half marathon and 430 runners will contest a 11.2km race. While the winners of the half marathon will also receive a cash prize, those who come first in the 11.2km event will be awarded a local specialty — Kinmen kaoliang liquor — the organizers 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