■ Local Politics
Huang denies visits
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has devoted much of his time to soul-searching since Saturday's legislative elections and has not met with politicians as local news media reported, a senior Presidential Office official said yesterday. James Huang (黃志芳), the Presiden-tial Office deputy secretary-general, was responding to media reports that Chen has met with several political heavyweights at his official residence. According to media reports, Chen had met with former Vice Premier Lin Hsin-yi (林信義) and two Judicial Yuan vice presidents -- Cheng Chung-mo (城仲模) and Lai Ying-jaw (賴英照) -- in the past few days to discuss a possible Cabinet reshuffle to cope with the post-election political situation. "The reports are not factual," Huang said, adding that the only person that the president has received at his official resi-dence since the elections is his mentor Lee Hung-hsi (李鴻禧). Lee, an academic specializing in constitutional affairs who now heads the Ketagalan Institute, paid a visit to Chen on Sunday to encourage him not to be daunted by the elections setback, Huang said.
■ Civil Law
KMT chief's wife wins suit
The Taipei District Court ruled yesterday that a local bio-technology firm must pay Lien Fang Yu (連方瑀), wife of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), NT$500,000 (US$15,432) in compensa-tion for using her image without her authorization. Lien Fang sued the firm in July after it had used her image in an advertisement promoting a freckle removal cream. She had asked for NT$5 million in compensa-tion and said the money would be donated to charity organizations if she won the suit.
■ Diplomacy
Paal called back to US
The US, concerned about rising cross-strait tensions, has summoned American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) director Douglas Paal to report on the legislative elections outcome and future Democratic Pro-gressive Party policies, a local radio station reported yesterday. Paal returned to Washington over the weekend and has met with several officials, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, the Broadcasting Corporation of China said. Also among the topics discussed was Taiwan's budget for arms purchases. Paal's return home came after Washington had expressed displeasure about President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) plan to apply for Taiwan to rejoin the UN, amend the Constitution and remove the word "China" from the names of Taiwan-ese firms. The AIT declined to comment when contacted by the Taipei Times for confirmation of Paal's unscheduled trip to the US.
■ Diplomacy
Bikes donated to Philippines
Taiwan has donated 28 police motorcycles to the central Philippine province of Capiz on Panay Island, officials said yesterday. Officials of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines said they presented the vehicles during a recent visit to the province and they were accepted by Governor Vincente Bermejo. During the visit, the Taiwanese officials also discussed issues concerning fishery cooperation between the two countries with Capiz officials. Both sides are expected to sign a memo-randum on joint fishery development soon, they said.
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