SOCIETY
Half of Vietnamese found
Half of the 148 Vietnamese who left their tour groups after arriving last month have been located, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, 74 of the travelers, who disappeared after arriving in four tour groups on Dec. 21 and Dec. 23, had been found and were being held in detention centers, the agency said in a statement. It urged the remaining travelers to report to the authorities. The agency offers a NT$4,000 (US$130) reward to people who provide information that leads to the arrest of foreigners who stay in Taiwan illegally from countries covered by the “Kuan Hung Pilot Project.” Six of the missing Vietnamese were located through tip-offs, it said. Agency Director-General Chiu Feng-kuang (邱豐光) urged people not to employ or provide shelter to the travelers.
DIPLOMACY
Virgin Islands deal signed
Taiwan has signed a reciprocal driver’s license agreement with the US Virgin Islands, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Miami said on Thursday. The agreement, signed in Saint Thomas by the office and the Virgin Islands Bureau of Motor Vehicles, allows drivers with licenses from Taiwan and the Virgin Islands to apply for a license the other territory without having to take a road test. The arrangement would make life easier for Taiwanese license holders in the US territory and vice versa, Miami office Director-General David Chien (錢冠州) said. US Virgin Islands Governor Albert Bryan, who attended the signing ceremony, said that he hoped the agreement would attract more Taiwanese to the territory and promote local economic development.
SOCIETY
Chabad addresses Nazi flag
The Chabad Taipei Jewish Center on Thursday expressed regret over a case in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華) in which a betel nut store was found to have displayed a Nazi flag. “We call on the Wanhua store owners who display the Nazi flag to understand that even if no ill will is intended, their display of the Nazi flag is an extraordinarily disrespectful act toward the Jewish victims of the Nazis and toward human rights in general,” the center said in a statement. However, it said it rejects stereotyping of Taiwanese, saying: “Taiwan is generally accepting of and open to different cultures and religions.” The center believes “communication, understanding and acceptance are the basis for cross cultural understanding,” the statement said. “We hope that we can all respect our differences while working together to safeguard Taiwan’s democracy and freedoms,” it said.
CRIME
Chinese fishing boat fined
A Chinese fishing boat on Thursday was ordered to leave and pay a fine of NT$1.6 million after attempting to fish in Taiwanese waters, the Coast Guard Administration said yesterday. The ship on Dec. 3 was spotted preparing to fish 25 nautical miles (46.3km) off the coast of Hsinchu before being seized by coast guard officers, it said in a statement. No fish were found on the boat, but Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine personnel disinfected the boat after discovering 4.8kg of pork in a freezer on board the vessel, it said. Following a 40-day investigation, it was ruled that the boat should pay a fine for trying to poach in Taiwan in line with the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) before leaving the nation, the agency said. Coast guard vessels on Thursday escorted it out of Taiwan’s waters, it added.
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