SOCIETY
AIT launches photo contest
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) is running a photography contest to celebrate the third anniversary of Taiwan’s admission to the US’ Visa Waiver Program (VWP). The US included Taiwan in its VWP on Nov. 1, 2012, making it one of the 38 countries and territories that enjoy visa-free travel to the country. “Since then, the number of Taiwan visitors to the United States has increased by nearly 42 percent,” the AIT said. Taiwanese are invited to submit photographs taken during their US trips to the “Visa Waiver Program Turns Three” Photo Contest. Winners will receive AIT souvenirs and may join AIT Director Kin Moy for a meal and to discuss their US trips, the AIT said in a statement. Participants may submit their photographs via e-mail to AITcontest@mail.ait.org.tw until Nov. 1, it said.
TRANSPORTATION
Train schedules altered
The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) has adjusted the schedules of 206 trains, or more than 20 percent of all the trains it operates. The adjustments are scheduled to begin today, with freight and passenger trains running between Kaohsiung and Chaojhou Township (潮州) in Pingtung County the most affected by the changes, the TRA said. The number of train journeys on the line is to be increased from a total of 66 runs per day to 118, with the current 60 passenger train journeys increased to 107, and the headway — the length of time between trains — decreased from 34 minutes to 19 minutes, the agency said. The number of trains running on the eastern line is also to be increased with the completion of the Shoufeng (壽豐) to Nanping (南平) double track project in Hualien County, the TRA said. Details are available on www.railway.gov.tw.
SOCIETY
Long weekends announced
The nation’s workers and students can look forward to seven long weekends lasting three days or more next year, the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration (DGPA) said on Tuesday. In addition to the nine-day Chinese New Year holiday from Feb. 6 to Feb. 14, long weekends are also scheduled for the Founding Day of the Republic of China from Jan. 1 to Jan. 3; 228 Peace Memorial Day from Feb. 27 to Feb. 29; Children’s Day and Tomb-Sweeping Day from April 2 to April 5; the Dragon Boat Festival from June 9 to June 12; the Mid-Autumn Festival from Sept. 15 to Sept. 18 and Double Ten National Day from Oct. 8 to Oct. 10. The total number of holidays next year, including regular weekends, comes to 116 days, the DGPA said. The number this year was 115.
AGRICULTURE
Fruit virus test developed
Taiwanese researchers have developed a test for viruses that affect the seedlings of passion fruit, a tropical crop that generates substantial annual revenue. The two test kits can detect at least six strains of passion fruit viruses and halve the time normally spent checking seedlings’ health, said Tsay Jyh-rong (蔡志榮), deputy director-general of the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Agriculture Research Institute. By detecting passion fruit viruses during the crop’s planting season, farmers will be able to grow healthy plants and obtain better harvests, he said, adding that the technique for producing the test kits can be passed on to local seedling breeders for commercialization. The nation produced 7,958 tonnes of passion fruit in 2013, with an output value of approximately NT$400 million (US$12.2 million), Tsay said. The industry risks a 30 percent loss in production value when the crop is attacked by viruses, he said.
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