■ Politics
Legislator slams minister
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) complained yesterday that Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) is biased and not qualified for his job. The two men traded barbs when Chen visited the Tainan District Prosecutors' Office yesterday morning to pro-mote prosecutors' anti-vote-buying efforts. Lee said that Chen and the prosecutors were always investigating and indicting their political enemies, especially near election time. Lee called Chen an embarrassment to the judiciary and unqualified to be the minister of justice. Chen said Lee's accusations were groundless and added that Lee was not qualified to be a lawmaker. Chen said prosecutors don't go looking to make trouble for anyone who has done no wrong. Chen said the Tainan District Prosecutors' Office is working on a bribery-related case linked to the pan-green camp. "If we are not fair, why don't pan-green people come to us and complain?" Chen said.
■ Environment
Winds bring more spoonbills
Strong northeast trade winds have brought another flock of black-faced spoonbills from the northern Korean Peninsula to the Chiku wetlands to winter, bird-watchers said yesterday. As of yesterday, 682 of the endangered birds had arrived at the wetlands in Tainan County, said a spokesman for the Happy Family, a group of wild-bird fans that promotes wildlife conservation. "The number is already close to the record set Dec. 3, 2003, when 705 black-faced spoonbills were counted wintering at the Chiku sanctuary," the spokesman said. A global survey conducted in January, found only 1,206 black-faced spoonbills left in the world.
■ Taipei
Ma attends Jakarta meeting
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) left for Jakarta yesterday to attend an Asian Network of Major Cities (ANMC) conference aimed at promoting resources exchanges among major Asian cities. Ma will take part in a forum on inter-city resources exchanges to boost Asian development. He will also meet with Tai-wanese businesspeople operating in Indonesia. He is scheduled to return to Taipei tomorrow. The network groups 12 capitals: Tokyo, Taipei, Seoul, Beijing, Hanoi, Manila, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, New Dehli and Yangon.
■ Culture
Aboriginal fest to be held
Indigenous people from 36 settlements nationwide will showcase their agricultural products, traditional handi-crafts and promote eco-tourism trips at the National Aboriginal Festival in Ilan County. Sponsored by the Ilan County Government, the festival will be held at the National Center for Tradi-tional Arts in Ilan. It will feature events such as traditional dance perfor-mances, painting contests and an artwork auction. The organizers will also sponsor one-day eco-tourism tours to Na-ao and Datong on Satur-day and Sunday. The festival starts Saturday and runs through next Monday.
■ IPR
Pirated products decreasing
Pirated video and audio products accounted for 42 percent of all video and audio products sold in this country last year, resulted in a 20 percent decrease per year in the total value of legitimate products, Govern-ment Information Office Director General Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Lin said piracy has taken a toll on the country's trade with the US.
■ Health
Kids eat too much fat: DOH
A new survey of nutrition released yesterday has found that elementary school students lack several basics needed in a balanced diet. The Department of Health commissioned Academia Sinica to conduct the survey on the nation's nutrition situation and its changes between 1998 and 2002. The survey on students aged 6 to 12 found that boys took in more calories and other nutrients (except for vitamin C) than girls. About half of the students ate too much fat, while over 60 percent of fourth, fifth and sixth grade girls were deficient in iron as recommended by the Dietary Reference Intake. They also took in too much cholesterol and salt. The health department suggested that parents should choose appropriate snacks and beverages for their children, while avoiding those that have too much fat, sugar or salt.
■ Crime
Smelly thief turns himself in
A jewelry shop robber turned himself into police after hiding for a month in an apartment building attic, saying he could no longer stand the smell of his own body odor, a news report said yesterday. Authorities told a local newspaper that Wang Wen-long, 28, was unemployed and addicted to playing video games. On Oct. 21, he robbed a jewelry shop in Taoyuan County, stealing two gold rings he intended to sell to get the money to play video games. To avoid being found, Wang hid in an attic space in his apartment building, surviving on a stock of bread and bottled water, the paper said. On Sunday, Wang told police he finally decided to give himself up because his body odor was unbearable and he would rather go to jail and have a good bath.
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