SOCIETY
Domestic violence falls
About 1.4 percent of women nationwide were victims of domestic violence from July 2010 to June last year, down slightly from 1.7 percent five years ago, according to the results of a survey released yesterday by the Ministry of the Interior. Among the victims, 1.2 percent suffered psychological abuse, while 0.5 percent suffered physical abuse, the survey showed. Ministry official said the results were consistent with statistics compiled by the ministry which indicate a slight decrease in reported cases of domestic violence last year. The ministry surveys women aged 15 to 64 every three to five years to determine their work, marriage, finance, family and personal situations. The latest survey was conducted in June last year and involved 6,455 women, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.22 percentage points.
HEALTH
Hemophiliacs get better care
People suffering from hemophilia in New Taipei City (新北市) have access to better care since the city’s first hemophilia center was opened earlier this year, Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital said yesterday. The center provides consultation services and medical care for hemophiliacs in New Taipei City and Taipei, said Chao Tsu-yi (趙祖怡), chief of the hospital’s Department of Hematology and Oncology. Before the center was set up, hemophiliacs in New Taipei City had to go to hospitals in Taipei City for treatment, Chao said. “Traveling is particularly inconvenient for injured hemophiliacs,” because they require injections of blood clotting agents immediately to help stop the bleeding, he added. According to the hospital, there are about 1,300 hemophiliacs in the country, 600 of whom live in the Greater Taipei area.
DIPLOMACY
Taiwan to donate rice
The nation will donate 10,850 tonnes of milled rice this year for international famine relief under a food-aid project, the Council of Agriculture said. So far this year, eight applications have been approved for overseas food aid and 8,700 tonnes of milled rice will be delivered via the World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce, the Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation and the Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps for delivery to countries affected by food shortages, the council said. Another 2,150 tonnes of milled rice will be donated through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Christian charity World Vision Taiwan for food relief, the council said.
DIPLOMACY
US diplomat to visit
A senior US diplomat is to visit the nation this month, officials said yesterday, as Taipei looks to resume free-trade talks with Washington after relaxing a six-year-old ban on some US beef imports. US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Jose Fernandez will visit Taiwan on Sunday and meet President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the American Institute in Taiwan said in a statement. Although resuming the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), which has been dormant since 2007 because of a beef import dispute, was not officially on the table, the timing of the visit has sparked attention. The legislature, controlled by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), last week passed a bill to amend a law that had barred imports of US beef containing a growth drug used in animal feed to promote lean meat. Washington had described the beef dispute as the biggest barrier to the stalled trade negotiations.
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