■ Medical
Worms grow in man's mouth
Three worms -- each measuring 3cm -- grew in the mouth of a 73-year-old paralyzed man because his family members never cleaned his mouth, a local TV channel reported yesterday. The man from Ilan County had been bed-ridden for many years due to paralysis. His mouth had always been left open, but his family members never cleaned his teeth, the TV channel reported. Recently family members noticed three white worms wriggling in the man's mouth and sent him to hospital. Doctors removed the worms and believed they had developed after flies laid eggs in the man's mouth. The doctors reprimanded the patient's family for ignoring his oral hygiene, and urged family members of all invalids to clean their patients' teeth, change their bedding and kill flies and mosquitoes in the house, the TV channel said.
■ Development
GOH plans to empower girls
The Garden of Hope Foundation (GOH) is hoping to empower teenage girls in Taipei with its July "Girls Working Day" plan. Foundation representatives said that they got the idea for an externship or mentoring event from the US' "Take Your Daughter to Work Day." Hoping a similar event would help Taiwanese girls get a glimpse of their dream careers, the GOH decided to present Taiwan's first "Girls Working Day" this July. The foundation hopes to find around 15 girls between 16 and 18 years of age in the National Taiwan University area with career plans. Once girls have registered their dream careers, the foundation will try to find businesses and employees that match the girls' requirements. The seminar will last three days, from July 28 to July 30. To learn more, call the GOH at (02)2369-0885, ext. 547.
■ Politics
China reminded of WHO rules
The Chinese authorities should protect Taiwan business interests in China and should not mix politics with economics in this area, a government official said yesterday. Chiu Tai-san (邱太三), vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), made the call on the grounds that China, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), should follow the WTO's regulations on discrimination. Stressing that China should live up to its repeated pledges that "economics should be separate from politics," Chiu said that the authorities of some provinces have gone against the principle set by Beijing and have resorted to various measures to undermine the business interests of some Taiwanese companies operating in their jurisdictions.
■ Commerce
ITRI to host seminar
A two-day meeting on the commercialization of Asia-Pacific micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) and its market development will open at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Hsinchu on Thursday. The meeting will be co-sponsored by the institute's Materials Research Laboratories, the Micro and Nanotechnology Commercialization Education Foundation and a Taiwanese engineering association in North America. Lab officials said that MEMS has wide applications, including in consumer electronics, optical and wireless communications, automobile electronics and environmental protection, and is expected to become the core manufacturing technology. The officials said that to promote related technology and the commercialization of the system, the two-day meeting will invite 150 leaders in the area from the US and the Asia-Pacific region to share their experiences.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
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