DIPLOMACY
Ex-ambassador falls sick
Former ambassador to the Dominican Republic Tang Ji-zen (湯繼仁) yesterday collapsed while accompanying foreign dignitaries in a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, but regained consciousness after treatment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Tang, who is now an ambassador on home assignment after the Dominican Republic broke ties with Taiwan in May, lapsed into unconsciousness in the midst of a meeting between Tsai and foreign dignitaries invited to attend the Double Ten National Day celebrations, the ministry said. Taipei City Hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine said that Tang was first attached to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine and given 26 shots of adrenalin, but remained in critical condition. He was then transferred to National Taiwan University Hospital and regained consciousness after further treatment. He is to remain in hospital for observation, the ministry said.
WEATHER
Cooler weather in north
The arrival of the first northeast monsoon would start affecting the weather today until Saturday, sending the mercury down in the northern and northeastern regions, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Temperatures in the north are forecast to slide to about 19°C, the bureau said, adding that people living in coastal areas in the north would experience even lower temperatures. Chances of occasional rains are high in the northern and northeastern regions, with sporadic heavy rainfall likely to occur in the northeastern region and Taipei and New Taipei City, the bureau’s forecast showed. Cloudy to sunny skies are forecast for the rest of the nation, with afternoon thundershowers in the south and the mountainous areas in central Taiwan, it said, advising people living in the southern and central regions to be alert to the large variation in temperature between daytime and evening. Although the northeast monsoon is expected to weaken by Sunday, chances of occasional rains remain high between Sunday and Tuesday next week, the bureau said.
HEALTH
Agencies trade accusations
Local and central health authorities yesterday blamed each other for not issuing a public warning and recalling products over a reported food scare implicating Yi Jin King (義進金), which allegedly used forged labels and banned chemicals in its egg products. The Chiayi County Health Bureau said that in July it found 0.05 parts per million of nicarbazin in eggs produced by the firm, which were sold at a Pxmart outlets nationwide. Nicarbazin is legal for general veterinary use, but is prohibited for use in egg-producing hens, according to Council of Agriculture regulations. Council officials said the bureau neglected to inform the public about the test results, and failure to do so has allowed the tainted eggs to be sold on the market. However, bureau officials said they had notified the council in July, but as it did not receive any instructions, it issued no public warnings or orders to recall the eggs. The bureau is not responsible for testing eggs for toxic substances or banned chemicals, and was helping with a nationwide food safety inspection program coordinated by the council. Company owner Su Wen-yuan (蘇文源) yesterday said that test results from August and last month showed his company’s egg products were safe and conformed to health standards.
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