■ Security
Professionals behind bomb
The police yesterday said that the bomb that was set off in front of the Ministry of Education on Friday night was professionally made, but they would not confirm whether the case is directly related to the notorious "rice bomber." The bomb exploded on the sidewalk in front of the ministry at approximately 8:30pm on Friday night. No one was injured in the blast. Police said the bomb was made of a small portable gas tank and had been remotely detonated by a timer. Officers also discovered some explosive powder on the ground. As for the "rice bomber," police have been looking for him (or them) for more than a year. The "rice bomber" has always left a note, as well as some explosive powder and a small packet of rice along with the explosives. Up to now, the "rice bomber" has been blamed for at least eight explosions. No one has bee injured in the blasts.
■ Honors
Gao to be awarded degree
National Taiwan University (NTU) will confer an honorary doctorate degree on the 2000 Nobel Prize for literature winner Gao Xingjian (高行健) during the university's 76th anniversary celebrations on Nov. 15, officials said yesterday. The Chinese-French writer, however, will not be able to come to Taiwan for the ceremony because his health does not allow him to fly long distances, the NTU officials said. Gao will instead address the event through a 10-minute pre-recorded video that will be shown at the event, they said. Also, they said, Gao has promised to offer lectures at NTU during the second half of next year or the year after that if his health improves. The theme of the lectures might focus on "literature and life" and "literature and art."
■ Environment
Fire devastates state forests
A forest fire was reported in the Lishan (梨山) area of Taichung County late last night. At 10pm, around 50,000m2 of forest had been ravaged by flames, but no injures were reported. According to officials of the Taiwan Forestry Bureau, the fire broke out in the bureau's No. 95 and No. 96 forests in the Lishan area. Thirty local firefighters and bureau employees rushed to the scene to put out the fire, while more firefighters from outside the township were assigned to join them. It was still unclear whether the fire had been brought under control by press time last night.
■ Opinion poll
Independence support up
Twenty-one percent of Taiwanese support immediate independence for Taiwan, more than double the number in 2000 when the Democratic Progressive Party came to power, a public opinion poll showed yesterday. The increase in support for immediate independence from 8 percent in 2000 to 21 percent shows the intensification of the separatist consciousness in Taiwan, the United Daily News, which conducted the survey, said. The survey also showed support for maintaining Taiwan's status quo remains unchanged at 36 percent. The telephone poll of 942 adults showed that while more Taiwanese back immediate independence, fewer people back gradual independence -- 10 percent compared with 16 percent in 2000. Fewer people also back immediate or gradual reunification with China -- 6 percent compared with 9 percent in 2000 for immediate reunification, and 11 percent compared with 18 percent in 2000 for gradual reunification.
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