■ Heritage
Experts check sites
The Council of Cultural Affairs has invited international experts to evaluate 11 potential "World Heritage Sites" identified by local experts, an official in charge of preservation of cultural heritage said yesterday. The official said that local governments of the 25 cities and counties proposed a total of 88 sites, which were then narrowed down by experts to 11. Council Chairwoman Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀) and other officials have accompanied three international experts to see the sites in the past few weeks. They are Fort San Domingo in Tamsui, Yangmingshan National Park, the old mining township of Chinkuashih (金瓜石) in Taipei County, Chilanshan forest in Ilan, the old mountain line railway in Miaoli, the Alishan mountain railway, Taroko National Park, the Pei-Nan aboriginal site, Orchid Island, the Penghu Archipelago and Kinmen island.
■ Politics
Twu's impeachment sought
Three PFP lawmakers asked the Control Yuan yesterday to impeach the Department of Health acting head Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲) for a controversial adjustment of national health insurance premiums and patient fees. Lin Hui-kuan (林惠官), Cheng San-yuan (鄭三元) and Fu Kun-chih (傅崑萁) delivered a written complaint to the Control Yuan asking for Twu's impeachment because they think he has made errors in administering the National Health Insurance Program. They accused Twu of failing propose an evaluation report as promised that would list both advantages and disadvantages of the adjustments to the premiums and fees. They also questioned whether Twu was trying to avoid the legislature's supervision by refusing sending such adjustment to the legislature to be discussed. Twu said he shouldn't be blamed for the rate hike since he only became acting head three months on Sept. 1 -- the same day the rate adjustments took effect.
■ Transport
MRT suffers electrical delay
Train service on the Taipei MRT's yellow line between Taipei Railway Station and Kuting Station was halted for 13 minutes yesterday morning due to a power supply problem, the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) reported. The reasons behind the abnormal power supply were unclear, officials said, adding that the problem was being investigated by engineers. Service was halted at 8:05am and was resumed at 8:18am following emergency repair work on the power systems. Immediately after the stoppage, the TRTC mobilized buses to transport commuters affected by the delay.
■ Coast Guard
Drug smugglers arrested
Agents of the Coast Guard Administration stationed in Kaohsiung yesterday announced the arrest of two suspects caught trying to smuggle in 4.3kg of amphetamine, worth about NT$2 million (US$57,140), from China. Huang Shu-huang (黃書煌) said the coast guard was tipped off in August that an international drug ring was smuggling controlled substances into Taiwan through airports, using couriers. After more than three months of investigation, officials learned that two couriers, surnamed Lin and Lee, were to board a China Airlines flight from Hong Kong on Sunday night. Agents were deployed at CKS International Airport and at Kaohsiung's Hsiaokang Airport. The two suspects were arrested at CKS after agents and custom officials found amphetamines hidden in sealed cereal bags in their luggage.
Staff writer, with agencies
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