■ Society
Book sale to help orphans
The Taipei American School's (TAS) Orphanage Club will hold its annual book sale tomorrow from 10am to 5pm in the lobby and forecourt of the school -- rain or shine. Club members have collected thousands of books, including bestsellers, biographies, art and travel literature, children's and English-teaching books. Scores of books in Chinese, Japanese and other languages are also available, as well as magazines, comic books and games. Money raised from the book sale will provide funding for orphans and other needy children in Taiwan and abroad. TAS is located at 800 Zhongshan N Rd, Sec. 6, in Tianmu (天母).
■ Event
Tibetan uprising march
Tibetans in Taiwan and their supporters announced yesterday that a march will be held tomorrow to commemorate the 48th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising. After years of oppression, Tibet, which was invaded by China in 1950, rose up against the Chinese government on March 10, 1959. The uprising was met with violent military oppression by China, and the Tibetan government, led by the fourteenth Dalai Lama, went into exile. Members of the Tibetan government in exile will be present at the event tomorrow, where a statement from the Dalai Lama will be read. The march will begin at 10am in front of the Taipei City Council and is anticipated to end at 12 noon.
■ Health
Men don't brush as much
Men are lagging behind their female counterparts when it comes to oral hygiene, a survey of 22,087 men and women conducted by the Bureau of Health Promotion showed. More than 80 percent of women above the age of 12 brushed before going to bed, compared to less than 70 percent of the men surveyed. The survey found that women brushed their teeth on average twice a day, compared to men's 1.7 times a day. Women were also more likely to floss, with 49 percent using dental floss, compared to 40 percent of men. Both men and women were unlikely to visit the dentist for a check-up every six months, with only 14.3 percent of women and 12.8 percent of men doing so. However, 98.6 percent of women and 97.7 percent of men were likely to clean their teeth at least once a day.
■ Litigation
Court rules against Taipei
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against the Taipei City Government's subway bureau, which had questioned the legal status of a French firm entangled in a legal battle with the city over the Mucha line of the mass rapid transit system. Yeh Chin-yuan, (葉慶元), director of the city's Law and Regulation Commission, refused to comment yesterday, saying he had not yet received the court ruling in writing. The city's Department of Rapid Transit Systems (DORTS) filed the request in August 2005 after losing a 12-year legal battle with French firm Matra in October 2005. The Supreme Court ordered DORTS to pay Matra NT$1.6 billion (US$48 million) for construction delays. DORTS questioned the legal status of the company, which disbanded in December 1995, after Matra filed for an injunction because the city refused to pay up. Taipei City Councilwoman Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊) of the People First Party claimed that the last seven months of litigation had cost NT$300 million.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe