EMERGENCIES
Fire closes highway
A section of Provincial Highway No. 18 was temporarily closed yesterday morning as firefighters worked to contain a forest fire in the Alishan (阿里山) area, the Directorate-General of Highways said. The fire began at noon on Thursday in a wooded area near Chiayi County’s Dabang Village (達邦) close to the 28.5km mark on County Highway No. 169 and spread to surrounding areas. Tsai Wei-yung (蔡衛勇), who heads the Fifth Maintenance Office’s Alishan Public Works Section, said that the fire caused loose soil and rocks to fall onto the road, in particular between the 68.7km and 69.2km markers on the provincial highway, which is commonly known as the Alishan highway. An official from the Chiayi Forest District Office was struck by a falling rock yesterday, district office deputy director Lee Ting-chung (李定忠) said, adding that the official’s injuries were not life-threatening. The fire had spread across 1 hectare of forest, the district office said, adding that the cause had yet to be determined.
SOCIETY
Taipei Zoo catches monkey
A patas monkey that escaped from the Taipei Zoo was recaptured on Thursday after being caught in a trap about 360m from its enclosure, officials said. The eight-year-old male named Nan Dao (男道) was found in the trap at 8:40am, probably attracted by the apples and cookies inside, and a recording of noises made by patas monkeys playing, zoo spokesman Eric Tsao (曹先紹) said. Nan Dao appears stable, although he was a bit nervous, Tsao said, adding that he would receive a thorough health check next week. Once cleared of any injuries and after completing a 14-day quarantine, Nan Dao would be returned to the enclosure he shares with other patas monkeys, Tsao said. Nan Dao escaped on Monday when a zookeeper was cleaning its enclosure.
SOCIETY
Baseballer to show photos
Two exhibitions of photographs by Wang Chien-ming (王建民), a former Major League Baseball (MLB) player, are to open this month, depicting aspects of his career and his fascination with Taiwan’s scenery. The photos are to be displayed at two free exhibitions, both titled “Wang’s Life,” in Taipei and Tainan. They are to run for nearly one month. The one in Tainan, his hometown, is to run from Saturday next week to April 25 at the Hayashi Department Store, featuring photos of Taiwan’s scenery, Wang said. The exhibition in Taipei is to comprise photos he took abroad, depicting his transition from Taiwan as a student to his career in the US, he said. It is to open on March 31 at the Olympus Plaza Taipei and run through April 25.
EDUCATION
Bilingual teacher goal set
The Ministry of Education is to increase the resources it dedicates to training teachers able to conduct courses in Mandarin and English, with a target of 1,500. Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) on Wednesday told a legislative meeting that the ministry has earmarked subsidies for facilities that specialize in bilingual teaching and research at eight universities. The universities would develop teaching methods and write programs for bilingual teachers, Pan said. Since last year, the ministry has established training for on-the-job teachers to improve their competency in bilingual teaching, Pan said, adding that 150 teachers have attended. The program this year is to include student teachers and those already working, Pan said, adding that he expects the efforts to help train 1,500 bilingual teachers annually.
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