CHARITY
Book sale set for TAS
The Taipei American School’s (TAS) Orphanage Club will hold its annual book sale on Saturday from 10am to 5pm in the lobby and courtyard of the school. The club has collected thousands of books, as well as magazines, comic books, games, DVDs and other items. The books include best sellers, biographies, children’s books and -English-teaching books as well as titles dealing with Taiwan, China and Asia. There are lots of books in Chinese, both fiction and non-fiction. Money raised from the book sale will provide funding for orphans and other needy children in Taiwan and its outlying islands as well as other countries. In case of rain, the sale will be postponed one week to March 19. The Orphanage Club is one of the oldest and largest student organizations at the school, with members ranging in age from junior-high to high-school students. TAS is located at No. 800, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 6 in Tianmu.
POLITICS
Councilors sorry for display
Local Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors apologized over Tuesday’s attempted fire display at the New Taipei council, after it received widespread criticism. The councilors had dressed up as cooks and brought six lit torches into the council building two days after a fire at a Greater Taichung pub killed nine and injured a dozen. The group had said that they were trying to highlight to New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) the importance of fire safety in the city. “We understand … that it was extremely dangerous,” councilor Peng Cheng-lung (彭成龍) said yesterday. “We also know that it was a bad example.”
TRANSPORTATION
Airport taxi fare to drop
The surcharge for taxi fares at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is set to drop from 50 percent to 15 percent from March 15, airport authorities said yesterday. The announcement came in the midst of increasing passenger complaints that the 50 percent surcharge on taxis from the airport is too high, airport officials said. However, the officials also said that because other aspects of airport taxi tariffs will actually be increased, the final adjustment will see taxi fares from the airport to Taipei drop just NT$64 from before.
HEALTH
Kidney, heart disease linked
People with chronic kidney problems have an increased risk of developing heart disease, a recent national survey found. Released yesterday ahead of World Kidney Day today, the survey found that high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and heart disease were more prevalent among patients with kidney diseases than among those without renal illnesses, the Bureau of Health Promotion said. It was found that 36.6 percent of people with kidney dysfunction have high blood pressure, compared with 15 percent among those without kidney disease, said Horng Shiow-shiun (洪秀勳), a section chief in the bureau’s division of adult and elderly health. In addition, 32.3 percent of kidney disease patients have high cholesterol levels, 17.3 percent have diabetes and 12.9 percent suffer from heart disease, the study showed. Bureau -Director-General Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞) said Taiwanese kidney patients often overlook their condition, as indicated in the survey, which found that about 60 percent of people with kidney problems do not monitor the risk factors regularly. The survey was conducted nationwide between 2009 and last year among 200,000 respondents over the age of 15.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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