TRANSPORTATION
Taxis to set pet rates
Taiwan Taxi, the nation’s largest taxi service provider, said it plans to introduce surcharges for passengers carrying large pets. The company said the campaign, a joint effort with Taiwan Sheltered Animal Conservationist Association, is aimed at promoting pet-friendliness. Many pet owners have expressed frustration when traveling with their pets. Taxi drivers often refuse passengers carrying pets or overcharge them, the company said, adding that the pet program would establish a standardized pricing system. The company said it plans to charge an extra NT$100 per ride for pets that are too big to be put in cages. About 500 Taiwan Taxi drivers have signed up for the program. The company will ask Taipei’s Department of Transportation for approval next week, adding that if the program is not approved, the company and the animal group would try to come up with alternative pricing plans.
DIPLOMACY
Nation boosting ICAO bid
The nation is increasing its efforts to participate in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) assembly in September as an observer, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of International Organizations director-general Kelly Hsieh (謝武樵) said. Hsieh declined to elaborate on how the nation would achieve the goal. Asked whether the nation would ask its diplomatic allies to submit proposals supporting the country’s bid to become an ICAO observer, he said that this would be one option, adding that there are other possible approaches. Further details will be announced “at the opportune time,” he added. The Montreal-based ICAO is an organization under the UN that promotes the safe and orderly development of international civil aviation around the world.
CHARITY
Rummage sale at TAS
The Taipei American School (TAS) Orphanage Club will be hosting its annual end-of-school-year rummage sale today from 10am to 5pm. Club members have collected a huge variety of new and used clothing, shoes, household items, toys, games, furniture, electronics and other miscellaneous items. All of the proceeds will go to the club’s funds for needy children and orphans in Taiwan, as well as AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania. The school’s address is 800 Zhongshan N Rd Sec 6 in Tianmu (天母).
TOURISM
Green bean cakes top poll
Green bean cakes have been selected as the second-best representative souvenir of Taipei, after pineapple cakes, the city’s Department of Information and Tourism said on Thursday. The city held an online contest to find its next top souvenir. Green bean cakes won 2,882 votes of about 6,000 cast, beating other traditional Taiwanese snacks such as banana pound cakes, dried longan (龍眼) cakes and nougats. Department Commissioner Chao Hsin-ping (趙心屏) said pineapple cakes have been the city’s iconic souvenir since the city government held its first pineapple cake festival to boost bakeries’ sales of the cakes from NT$1 billion (US$33.3 million) a year to NT$25 billion. The department’s annual Taipei Pineapple Cake Festival is set to open on Friday and run to June 23 at the Taipei Flora Expo Park. There are plans for 30 booths from 102 bakeries offering discounts on pineapple cakes and other products.
SOCIETY
Mom resumes search for son
Fryderyk (Fred) Mieszko Frontier, a naturalized US citizen, came to Taiwan a decade ago to teach English, but vanished after a hiking trip to Taroko Gorge. Frontier’s mother, Barbara Klita, traveled to the nation for the fourth time late last month in search of her son. She said last month’s rescue of three women in Cleveland, Ohio, after 10 years of captivity renewed her hopes of finding her son. Frontier moved to Taiwan in May 2003 after accepting a job at Hess Educational Organization to teach English in Kaohsiung. Before starting his job, he went on a hiking trip to Tienhsiang (天祥) in Hualien County. His family and employer have not heard from him since. During Klita’s latest visit on May 29, she again retraced Frontier’s footsteps, visiting Taroko Gorge and a Catholic hostel where he was last seen.
CRIME
Excessive donors fined
More than 350 cases, including individuals and enterprises, have attracted a combined NT$24.69 million in fines for making excessive political donations since 2009, the Control Yuan said. Hsu Hai-chuan (許海泉), deputy secretary-general of the government supervisory body, said that as of Wednesday last week, 374 cases had been found to have violated the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法) since January 2009, 351 of which involved individuals. The fines for individual violators stood at NT$20.67 million, accounting for 83.7 percent, he said. Hsu said that with next year’s seven-in-one local elections approaching, the Control Yuan is seeking to strengthen the public’s awareness of the regulations. Donations to a single political candidate from an individual or an enterprise cannot exceed NT$100,000 and NT$1 million per year respectively. For different candidates, an individual can donate up to NT$200,000 in political contributions, while an enterprise can donate up to NT$2 million in a single year, according to the act.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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