■ Politics
Lazy lawmakers condemned
The Nuke-4 Referendum Initiative Association (核四公投促進會) yesterday urged legislators to be responsible about reviewing bills, saying it expected lawmakers to not just worry about their re-election bids while getting nowhere in the legislative session. The chief executive of the association, Iap Phok-bun (葉博文), made the remarks when visiting the Democratic Progressive Party's headquarters yes-terday afternoon, saying most legislative candidates violate the Public Officials Election and Recall Law (公職人員選舉罷免法) which says all electioneering activity can only begin 10 days before election day. Iap said that most legislators are now mostly focused on their re-election campaigns, and don't attend the legis-lative sessions to review budgets or discuss draft laws, which has caused some budgets to be passed without cuts or discussion. Iap said the association will visit the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party today to ask their party members to be dutiful lawmakers.
■ Diplomacy
Typhoon delays Kim visit
The schedule for former South Korean president Kim Young Sam's visit was affected by Typhoon Nock-Ten, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Kim had been scheduled to arrive at CKS International Airport at 11:30am yesterday on a China Airlines flight. Because of the typhoon, Kim's arrival was delayed to around 6pm, ministry officials said, adding that the exact arrival time would depend on the weather conditions. Kim and his wife were invited by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to visit.
■ Weather
East coast enjoys sun
Taitung County residents enjoyed an extra day off at the beach as the county government announced on Sunday it would close schools and offices yester-day for fear of potential damage by Typhoon Nock-ten. The county saw strong winds and heavy rains late Sunday night. However, the county, along with most of eastern Taiwan, enjoyed sunshine yesterday while the typhoon dumped heavy rains in the north. Temperatures in Taitung City, Tawu village and Chengkong Township reached almost 31?C because of the hot air brought by the southwestern air current.
■ Health
Dengue fever cases climb
The Kaohsiung City Govern-ment has been informed by the Center for Disease Control that three new cases of locally-caught dengue fever have been identified, leaving the city with 14 cases of dengue fever this year. The city's Health Bureau said yesterday all the patient's conditions have been brought under control, and the three are recovering well. The bureau will moni-tor the outbreak through the joint disease-prevention mechanism established by Kaohsiung City, County and Pintung County govern-ments. Among the three new cases of locally-caught Dengue Fever, two caught the disease in Lingya district and one in Hsinhsing district.
■ Society
Employee dies at desk
A technician with the Central Weather Bureau, Chang Chao-yen (張朝彥), died yesterday afternoon after an asthma attack suspected to have been induced by overwork, bureau Vice Director Chen Chia-ping (程家平) said yesterday. Chen said that Chang, 40, was found dead at his desk by colleagues. Chang is survived by two young children.
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