■ Diplomacy
Nicaragua to query funds
Nicaragua will ask Taiwan if it transferred US$1.5 million to former president Arnoldo Aleman, a prosecutor said Tuesday. "We are going to ask Taiwan to clear up these transfers," to Aleman, prosecutor Alberto Novoa said. Aleman, president from 1997 to 2002 and already in prison for corruption, is under investigation on charges he received US$1.5 million through a Panama-based foundation. La Prensa newspaper exposed the funds transfers, based on a report of Panamanian anti-corruption prosecutors, who are investigating Aleman for allegedly laundering money through Panamanian banks. Panamanian prosecutors allege that Aleman received the US$1.5 million from several Taiwanese companies, through an account that the Nicaraguan Democratic Foundation had at a bank in Panama. Aleman and two associates opened the foundation account, according to prosecutors.
■ Diplomacy
Kim hopes ties are boosted
Former South Korean President Kim Young-sam said yesterday that since direct air links between Taiwan and South Korea have been resumed, political, cultural and economic ties should be further developed. Kim said he hopes his visit will contribute to Taiwan's efforts to further integrate into the international community. Kim made the remarks during a courtesy call on Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) at Taipei City Hall. Kim said that he shares with Ma a love for jogging, adding that he has been running every day for the past 33 years. Ma introduced Taipei 101 to Kim and offered him a series of books about the city of Taipei.
■ Culture
Gold brick may break record
Taipei County's Gold Ecological Park will display a gold brick weighing 220kg Oct. 28, officials said yesterday. The brick could break the current Guinness record for the heaviest single gold brick. The Taipei County Government intends to apply to Guinness for inclusion. An official from Guinness stationed in Taiwan will be on hand to witness the unveiling of the gold brick.
■ Crime
Shooting shatters windows
Random shots fired by an air gun shattered glass at the CIT TV office building in Neihu and its surrounding area yesterday. Windows were broken in the CIT TV building, a car dealership and a bus stop close by the TV station's office building along Minquan East Road. The shooting is currently being investigated by Neihu police. They have yet to conclude if it had anything to do with an angry TV viewer.
■ Travel
Plane damage report due
A damage report on a Transasia Airways Corp A320 airplane that skidded off the runway after landing Oct. 19 at Sungshan Airport is expected to be completed by next week when Airbus Industrie engineers will decide whether or not the plane can be repaired. TransAsia flight GE536 from Tainan suffered damage to the front wheel of the aircraft and the cowling covering a generator. There were 106 passengers and crew members on board at the time. Aviation safety experts have been analyzing data on the incident to determine if the cause was pilot error, weather or mechanical failure. TransAsia Airways officials said yesterday that Airbus experts are in Taipei to assess the damage.
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