NATIONAL DEFENSE
Army sergeant dies on duty
An army staff sergeant surnamed Lu (盧) died after he fainted while running laps yesterday at the Army Academy on Lieyu Islet (烈嶼). According to information released by the army, Lu was married with two children and had served for more than 10 years. He had been exercising on his day off yesterday with a fellow army officer on the day he died. The officer said Lu suddenly fainted after the fifth lap. He was immediately taken to a local hospital, but passed away while being treated. Lu was called up for training at the army’s Kinmen Regional Support Command on the island late last month. He was scheduled to complete his training on Aug. 20. An army officer on the island said it was a shock to learn of Lu’s sudden death as he was in excellent physical condition and had received a physical test score of more than 90 in March, with a perfect mark of 100 on several parts of the exam.
TOURISM
Taoyuan to boost plant tours
Taoyuan County is planning to increase the number of customized tours of its factories as a way of boosting tourism and promoting its traditional industries, county government officials said. From Wednesday next week to Sept. 30, the county will offer tours of factories that produce instruments, clothing, food, wine and other items, and will also provide information on how these old economy industries grew, the county government said. Last year, the county attracted 2.5 million visitors, which generated NT$600 million (US$20 million) in revenue, it said. It hopes to draw 3 million tourists this year, an increase that could help revitalize the local economy.
CULTURE
Taipei advances in WDC bid
Taipei has entered the final round of the 2016 World Design Capital (WDC) bid, the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design said on Tuesday in Montreal, Canada. Taipei was the only city to submit an application, but the council said it was “not discouraged” by receiving only one submission and that it would adopt the same rigorous standards it always employs to evaluate Taipei. Council officials said they would conduct a two-day onsite evaluation in Taipei next month to further assess the city’s application and a final decision would be announced later that month. Taipei is preparing for the visit and is confident that it will win the bid, the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs said. The World Design Capital is selected every two years and recognizes cities that have used design to reinvent themselves and to improve social, economic and cultural life. Past cities to receive the title include Italy’s Torino in 2008, Seoul in 2010 and Helsinki, Finland, last year. South Africa’s Cape Town has been designated the World Design Capital for next year.
CULTURE
Muse to display comic hits
Muse Communication Co plans to showcase two of the animation and cartoon world’s greatest hits, Gaspard et Lisa and Cheburashka, with themed stalls at the Comic Convention. The convention is to start on Thursday next week and run through to Aug. 20 at the World Trade Center in Taipei. France’s Gaspard et Lisa is based off books written by Anne Gutman and illustrated by Georg Hallensleben in 1999. The Russian Cheburashka was created by Soviet Union writer Eduard Uspensky in 1966 and was later animated in 1969. Both will be featured along with a wide array of merchandise.
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