ENVIRONMENT
‘Green market’ planned
Environmentally minded organizations are setting up a “green market” of 60 booths over the weekend to encourage sustainable consumption ahead of Earth Day. Visitors to the two-day market will be able to purchase organic food products and meet the local farmers who grew them, while eco-artists will show how to make household goods using recycled materials, according to the Taiwan Environmental Information Association. The event at the Nanmen Park campus of National Taiwan Museum will also include discussions and activities to brainstorm better methods of development, especially in terms of construction, energy use and transportation, the organizer said. The market is just one event in a larger campaign for this year’s Earth Day theme of green cities, which will run through early June and is expected to involve 15,000 participants, it added. Earth Day falls on Tuesday next week.
EMPLOYMENT
Job-matching service lauded
An online job-matching platform being promoted by the National Immigration Agency for employers and new immigrants has effectively addressed the shortage of workers in rural areas, National Immigration Agency Director-General Hsieh Li-kung (謝立功) said. The new service is an extension of previous services the agency began offering in rural areas in 2010, including sending representatives into less populated regions to help new immigrants extend their visas or collect certificates. As part of the new service, the agency has teamed up with a human resources company to set up a Web site that helps new immigrants find employment. The site has received 178,357 visits and helped 4,933 immigrants connect with 3,701 jobs, representing a success rate of 75.02 percent, Hsieh said.
COAST GUARD
New ship launched
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) launched a 3,000-tonne patrol and rescue vessel in Kaohsiung yesterday. The Kaohsiung (CG-129) entered the water in a ceremony at the Jong Shyn Shipbuilding Co shipyard. It is the second 3,000-tonne coast guard vessel launched recently. The Yilan, launched in January, is scheduled to begin service in June after extensive sea trials. CGA Deputy Minister Yu Ming-hsi (尤明錫) said the Kaohsiung is expected to begin service in November, after trials. It is to patrol waters to the south of the nation, including the South China Sea, to protect Taiwanese fishermen operating in the region, Yu said. The Yilan and Kaohsiung are the coast guard’s largest ships. They are 119m long, 15.2m wide and 8.2m tall.
TECHNOLOGY
Leaked HTC pic spurs arrest
A local man has been arrested and referred for possible prosecution in relation to a leaked image of HTC Corp’s new flagship smartphone — the One M8 — a month before its March 25 debut, police said yesterday. Police launched an investigation into the case in February after receiving a report from HTC, which discovered photos of the new phone on the Mobile01 Web site. Police later traced the photos to a 35-year-old New Taipei City resident who allegedly posted the pictures on the site without the company’s authorization. A computer and mobile phone containing the photos were seized from the suspect’s home during a raid on Tuesday, police said. The man is under investigation for allegedly violating the Copyright Act (著作權法) and the Trade Secrets Act (營業秘密法). The latter carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to NT$10 million (US$331,240).
EDUCATION
Chinese degree pool widened
The Ministry of Education announced yesterday that it now recognizes diplomas issued by 18 more Chinese institutions of higher education, bringing the total number of recognized schools to 129. The new additions cover 15 specialized colleges, as well as three research institutes: the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The nation’s policy recognizes diplomas issued on or after Sept. 3, 2010, by designated schools in China. For Taiwanese citizens who obtained diplomas from now-recognized Chinese institutions before that date, but after 1992, an examination is required to certify academic qualifications.
ENVIRONMENT
Rapture of the raptors
Today is to mark the beginning of a series of events centered on birds of prey to coincide with the peak of their migration season, offering a rare look at gray-faced buzzards and Chinese sparrowhawks. Among the events will be guided birdwatching tours in the North Coast and Guanyinshan National Scenic Area on today, tomorrow and April 27, as well as on May 4, the Tourism Bureau said. Peak raptor migration season begins after the spring equinox later this month, when frequent rainfall forces them to land or fly low, making it a good opportunity for bird watchers, the bureau said. The season is likely to last into May, according to the Taipei-based Chinese Wild Bird Federation, which said that Guanyinshan (觀音山) in New Taipei City, Baguashan (八卦山) in Changhua County and of Kenting (墾丁) in Pingtung County are among the best places to see aerial predators.
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
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
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