■ Revenue
Speed detectors rake in cash
The cash-strapped Taipei City Government reported yesterday that its speed detectors netted NT$4.6 billion (US$131 million) in fines last year, providing a steady revenue stream. Authorities from Taipei's Traffic Violations Arbitration Center said the fines last year were up NT$300 million (US$8.57 million) over 2001. A large number of new speed detectors installed by the city led to a total of 3.55 million tickets being issued last year. A single speed detector at a specific location earned the city more than NT$100 million (US$2.85 million) each year, statistics released by the center showed. Close to 60,000 speeders were caught by this one detector, officials said, meaning it netted more revenue for the city than any other device. This detector is positioned on a wide straight road near the exit of a major highway, where drivers tend to speed, a policeman said.
■ Justice
Yu discusses crime freeze
Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) met with police officials from around the nation yesterday to discuss how to achieve the goal of zero growth in the crime rate over the next three months. Yu said that he wanted to communicate with them directly to understand the difficulties that they face in implementing the "zero growth" goal, and how the central government can help them to overcome problems. Yu reaffirmed his determination to stem the growth of the crime rate no matter what the obstacles ahead.
■ Diplomacy
Soong visits Japan
PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) left for Japan yesterday for a weeklong visit that will include closed-door meetings with Japanese political heavyweights. Soong is being accompanied by several PFP lawmakers and Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀), director of the PFP's policy research center. His itinerary will include meetings with the mayors of Fukuoka and Yokohama and he was also expected to throw out the first pitch for a game between two professional baseball teams -- the Daiei Eagles and the Seibu Lions -- in Fukuoka today, as well as meeting with his supporters in Tokyo. PFP sources said a major part of Soong's itinerary will be private meetings with influential Japanese politicians, including Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the speaker and senior members of the Diet and leaders of Japan's ruling and opposition parties.
■ Diplomacy
Books given to university
Taiwan's representative office in New York has donated 22,000 books to the City College of the City University of New York to promote friendship and cultural exchanges. Andrew Hsia (夏立言), director of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO), donated the books to the City College in a ceremony held at the school's library. After TECO's library was closed last June, the office retained about 10,000 books for a national information center. The remaining 30,000 have been donated to various institutions in New York City, including Columbia University, the Queens district public library and the City College. Hsia said the donation to the City College was the largest so far. The books were sent to the college last May to be sorted and classified. Hsia said the books are expected to facilitate Asian studies and should particularly benefit scholars and students interested in Taiwan and China. The books cover a range of subjects, including literature, history, arts, politics and government.
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
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
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