CRIME
Pet abuser to do social work
A college student on Monday was ordered to do 40 hours of community service after admitting that she had mistreated her cat. The Providence University student, surnamed Lin (林), sparked a public outcry after posting photographs on Facebook of how she punished her cat “Kiki” by placing it in a plastic container. Lin did not take the backlash seriously until Greater Taichung District prosecutors informed her that she had violated the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法). After Lin showed remorse, saying she “deeply regretted” her action, prosecutors agreed to defer prosecution of the case, but ordered her to do 40 hours of community service over the next nine months and put her on probation for one year.
TRAVEL
More people taking cruises
The nation has emerged as the largest market in Asia for Star Cruises due largely to a rapid growth in passenger numbers in recent years. Without giving specific numbers, Star Cruises said it recorded the best sales in Taiwan among all Asian markets last year. The leading cruise line operator in the Asia-Pacific region entered the Taiwanese market in 1997. Last year, sea ports around the nation served 992,000 passengers, an increase of 41.8 percent from the previous year, Ministry of Transportation and Communications statistics showed. The high growth was partly attributed a 45.4 percent increase in the number of cruise passengers to 390,000 last year. Catering to the growing demand for cruise travel in the region, Star Cruises recently ordered two mega ships — 150,000-tonne and 160,000-tonne models — with a maximum passenger capacity of more than 4,500. The ships are expected to be delivered in 2016 and 2017.
DIPLOMACY
Groups mark Fukushima
Japanese and Taiwanese groups will commemorate the third anniversary of the devastating March 11, 2011, earthquake in Japan with a concert in Greater Taichung, organizers said yesterday. The concert, set for April 1 at the Chungshan Hall, is meant to reflect Japan’s gratitude for the relief assistance offered by Taiwan — which donated about ¥20 billion (US$195 million) in aid, more than any other single country — following the magnitude 9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami, said Lee Hsueh-feng (李雪峰), president of the Taiwan Koza Taiwan-Japan Exchange Association. As the concert is meant as a “thank you” gesture, 1,000 Taiwanese will be admitted free of charge, while up to 500 more tickets will be sold for NT$3,000. Some performers will come from the hardest-hit areas, including a female high-school choir and an opera singer, organizers said.
TOURISM
W and Regent: hottest hotels
The W Taipei and Regent Taipei are among the most popular accommodation choices for foreign celebrities when they visit Taiwan, Hotels.com said on Monday. W Taipei has been popular among foreign entertainers, sports stars and designers, Hotels.com said in a statement, based on information it has collected in recent years. Those who have stayed at W Taipei include Canadian pop-R&B singer Justin Bieber, Taiwanese-American NBA player Jeremy Lin (林書豪), retired Japanese football player Hidetoshi Nakata, Taiwanese-Canadian designer Jason Wu (吳季剛) and South Korean stars such as Jang Keun-suk. The Regent Taipei has been a popular choice among South Korean entertainers, counting among its celebrity guests actor Lee Min-ho, actress Yoon Eun-hye, the girl group Girls’ Generation and pop group Super Junior.
HEALTH
CDC alters checkup rules
From March 1, foreign workers’ medical examination reports will be directly sent to the health authorities from the responsible hospitals, which will lift the filing burden from employers, the Centers for Disease Control said yesterday. Employers are currently responsible for filing the reports of the routine physical examinations undertaken by foreign workers after six months, 18 months and 30 months of work in the country. Of the 380,000 foreign workers who undergo annual medical examinations, 99 percent meet the health requirements and are not required to undergo follow-up checks, the agency said. However, employers are still required to file reports for workers after they have follow-up checks. Employers who fail to have the foreign workers undertake follow-up examinations as required or do not file the reports face revocation of their employment permit, it added.
CRIME
Threats prompt legal action
Mandopop singer Jam Hsiao’s (蕭敬騰) management company said on Monday that it would take legal action against a letter writer targeting the singer. Warner Music Taiwan said in a statement that the police are handling the case. It did not specify who the target of the lawsuit would be. Hsiao received a threatening letter on Friday last week that contained mealworms and paper money usually burned for the deceased, Warner Music Taiwan said. Hsiao was attacked in October last year by men riding scooters who threw feces and urine into his car, hitting his driver, but not Hsiao. The instigator of the harassment is yet to be identified despite widespread speculation.
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