SOCIETY
Veteran donates to VAC
A 79-year-old veteran donated NT$8.2 million (US$274,000) of his life savings and three Taipei properties he owns to the Veterans Affairs Commission (VAC) and Genesis Social Welfare Foundation yesterday to help people in need. Lu Chen-cheng (呂振誠), who came to Taiwan from his hometown in China’s Zhejiang Province at the age of 16, retired from his job as a technician at Taipei Veterans General Hospital 24 years ago after having left the military in 1963. He has long made contributions to charity, including donating the NT$6,000 a month he earns in interest on his retirement account to orphans. “My life is simple. I can live on only NT$200 to NT$300 a day,” Lu said, adding that he still receives a monthly pension of about NT$24,000.
EDUCATION
High school comes second
Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School took second place at an international show band competition held in Calgary, Canada, on Tuesday. The Taiwanese school finished as the first runner-up with a score of 92.8 points at the Marching Show Bands World Championships held between July 4 and Tuesday. The 64-member band arrived in Canada on Wednesday last week after having practiced for 13 hours a day to get themselves ready for the competition, which is open to both high school and professional marching show bands. Canada’s Calgary Stampede Show Band clinched first prize with 94.9 points, while third place went to Germany’s Fanfare Potsdam, with 91.7 points. The four-day event attracted 10 teams from six countries including Denmark, Australia, the US and Thailand. The 30-year-old Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School show band won the world championship in Italy in 2008 and in Germany in 2010.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition