■ Water
MOEA mulls price hike
Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) said yesterday that a tap-water price hike is necessary as the daily commodity has been provided at prices far below cost. A price increase is also needed as a means of controlling consumption, particularly at a time when water levels at all the major reservoirs around the island are approaching record lows, he said. Lin, however, said he is uncertain about the amount of the increase, noting that the question is being discussed by the Water Resources Agency and water companies of all levels. He also said he is uncertain when exactly the price hike will be implemented, but reiterated the fact that former premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) had promised the public during his stint, which ended February last year, that water prices would not be raised within two years. The ministry is determined to keep Chang's promise, Lin said.
■ Crime
Men arrested for cheating
Three men at a high-tech company have been arrested for allegedly using hidden microphones and earphones to help hundreds of people cheat at civil servant examinations, police said yesterday. The exam-takers communicated with company employees via cell phones hidden under their shirts, using microphones to read questions and wireless earphones to receive test answers, police said. One man from the company was arrested on Sunday after appearing for a civil servants test at a high school but departing early to sneak out the exam papers, police officers said. Two other suspects were arrested at their homes, police said. The arrests followed a year of investigation. The group had helped hundreds of people cheat at exams over the past 18 months, and at least 100 of the candidates passed the exams to be recruited as policemen, jail wardens, firefighters or public school teachers, the officers said.
■ Rescue services
Yu dismisses purchase claim
Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) dismissed reports yesterday that Taiwan will purchase helicopters from Indonesia. Yu made the remarks at a legislative committee meeting during which legislators expressed concern about whether to phase out Taiwan's old rescue helicopters in the wake of the recent crash of a UHIH rescue helicopter after picking up the victims of a derailed alpine train on Alishan in Chiayi, southern Taiwan, on March 1. Yu said that the National Fire Fighting Administration plans to buy 12 helicopters over three years to supply the needs of rescue operations, but the questions concerning buying which kinds of helicopters from which countries has yet to undergo professional assessment.
■ Diplomacy
Chen meets vice president
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday met with Guatemalan Vice President Juan Francisco Reyes Lopez, who had just arrived in Taipei for a four-day official visit. Chen expressed his thanks to the Guatemalan government for its support for Taiwan's bid to join international organizations. He said that at an international meeting organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization last year, Reyes urged the meeting to admit Taiwan. Chen noted that Reyes will sign a joint statement with Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on first-stage consultations on the signing of a free-trade agreement. Chen recounted his trip to Guatemala last May, saying that he was deeply impressed by a tour of an ancient city, accompanied by Reyes.
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