TOURISM
Japanese flock to Taiwan
The nation has become the most popular destination for Japanese families traveling during the “golden week” holiday that started yesterday, according to a Japanese travel agency. The number of Japanese travelers that made overseas travel bookings from yesterday to Sunday next week rose by 91 percent this year, Japan’s Rakuten Travel Inc said. The number of families that booked trips to Taiwan jumped by 220.6 percent from last year, representing the biggest increase compared with other destinations, the agency said. It attributed the increased interest to closer bilateral ties following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan in March last year.
TECHNOLOGY
Most inventions submitted
The nation’s delegation to the annual Concour Lepine invention fair in Paris submitted the most entries among foreign countries, fair president Gerard Dorey said yesterday. In the three years Taiwan has attended the fair, the number of inventions submitted has increased, with a total of 64 this year, Dorey said. More Taiwanese have heard of the Concour Lepine invention fair these days, which is why the number of entries from them continues to increase, said Hsu Yi-chuan (徐義權), an associate professor at National United University’s Department of Industrial Design, who has headed Taiwan’s delegation for the last two years. The 111th Concours Lepine will run until May 8.
CRIME
Diplomat’s remains returned
The remains of a Taiwanese diplomat, found dead in the Dominican Republic earlier this month, the victim of an apparent murder, were brought back home yesterday. The ashes of Julia Ou (區美珍), a secretary responsible for overseas compatriot affairs in the Dominican Republic, were accompanied by her brother Ou Ming-te (區明德). Upon arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International airport, more than 50 officials and workers from the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission showed up to express their condolences. Ou Ming-te thanked the commission for its assistance in dealing with the situation and said he hoped the perpetrator would be brought to justice soon. Julia Ou, 55, was found stabbed to death at her home in Santo Domingo on April 18 after she failed to show up for work. Dominican Republic police said a special task force has been appointed to investigate the case and the Taiwan embassy there will be kept informed about the progress of the investigation.
RETAIL
Daiso increases food prices
In light of the appreciation of the Japanese yen, Daiso Shop, a Japanese discount store chain that became famous nationwide by selling all its goods for NT$39 (US$1), announced that starting on Tuesday, the prices of all foodstuffs at its stores across the country would be raised from NT$39 to NT$49, an increase of 25.6 percent. According to Daiso, 95 percent of foodstuffs sold at its stores are imported from Japan, but as a result of the 2008 global financial crisis and the rising value of the yen, imports have now become much more expensive, prompting the company to raise prices. The company said household goods would remain at NT$39 that for the time being, but added that if overhead costs continued to rise the company did not discount the possibility of a second round of price increases.
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