SOCIETY
Eid al-Fitr acceptance urged
The Ministry of Labor yesterday encouraged employers to allow their Muslim workers to observe Eid al-Fitr on Sunday. The day, marking the end of Ramadan, is an important holiday for Muslims, like Lunar New Year in the Chinese-speaking community, the ministry said. It is crucial that employers respect the religious beliefs of their foreign workers to create a harmonious relationship between labor and management, it added. Meanwhile, the Taipei City Government is on Sunday to hold an Eid al-Fitr celebration at the Taipei Travel Plaza near the Taipei Railway Station, the city’s Foreign and Disabled Labor Office said. The nation is home to about 252,000 Indonesian workers, 85 percent of whom are Muslim, ministry data show.
HEALTH
Encephalitis recorded
A woman from Pingtung County has contracted Japanese encephalitis, becoming the fourth person to be infected with the mosquito-borne disease in Taiwan this year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The 53-year-old on May 26 sought medical treatment at a local hospital after experiencing fever and fainting, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said. Because the symptoms persisted, she was transferred to another hospital for further treatment, Chuang said, adding that the case was then reported as suspected Japanese encephalitis to the local health authority along with samples for laboratory testing. The diagnosis was confirmed on Sunday. The woman had not recently traveled overseas, Chuang quoted the CDC as saying. However, there is a pigeon and poultry farm approximately 2km from the woman’s residence, Chuang said.
WEATHER
Rain eases, mercury rises
The mercury in the north is set to rise to 35°C tomorrow as a rain front hovering over the nation for the past five days gradually moves north, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday, adding that chances of heavy rain remain high nationwide today. Bureau forecaster Hus Chung-yi (徐仲毅) said the rain significantly eased yesterday as the front gradually moved north and a southwest jet stream weakened. For tomorrow, the bureau said that chances of showers and thundershowers would still be high in the center and south due to southwest winds, while sunny to cloudy skies and afternoon thundershowers are forecast for the rest of the nation. From tomorrow to Friday, the average temperature is to gradually rise to between 33°C and 34°C nationwide, while the north could see a high of 35°C.
SOCIETY
Former health minister dies
Former minister of health Shih Chun-jen (施純仁) died of a heart attack on Sunday at Taipei Veterans’ General Hospital at the age of 93. Shih, a native of Taichung, received his early education during the Japanese colonial period and graduated from National Taiwan University in 1947, majoring in medicine. He then joined the National Defense Medical Center, where he worked for 38 years. Shih did a two-year residency at the Montreal Neurological Institute in Canada from 1956 to 1958, after which he returned to Taiwan to help develop the field of neurosurgery and cofound the Taiwan Neurological Society in 1977. Shih served as the head of the general surgery department at Tri-Service General Hospital — the teaching hospital of the National Defense Medical Center — from 1975 to 1984 and headed the Department of Health (which in 2013 became the Ministry of Health and Welfare) from 1986 to 1990.
‘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
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
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
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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