■ Society
Prisoner releases down
There were 7,206 prisoners released on parole between January and November last year, down 5.4 percent from the same period the year before, according to statistics released by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics yesterday. In terms of offenses committed by the parolees, those who were in violation of drug prevention laws accounted for the most at 2,458, or 34.1 percent, followed by burglary at 793, or 11 percent. During the same period, 1,682 people had their parole revoked, down 19.4 percent from the same period last year.
■ Cross-Strait Ties
Illegal immigrants nabbed
Ten Chinese citizens -- eight men and two women -- were rounded up in waters off Lungtung Thursday night as they were trying to sneak into the country, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) authorities reported yesterday. Acting on tips, two teams of agents from the Keelung CGA and police from Juifang, Taipei County, began searching the Lungtung coast near Pitouchiao around 7:20pm. With the help of radar, police found the Chinese jumping from a Fuchi Fishing Port-registered boat into a sampan, which had sailed about 350m off Lungtung to pick up the smuggled human cargo. The 10 were brought to a nearby police station for questioning, while the skippers of the two Taiwanese fishing vessels were ordered to sail to Auti Port in Juifang for questioning.
■ Politics
Premier to step down
Premier Yu Shyi-kun said for the first time yesterday that he will not remain as premier after the Cabinet resigns on Jan. 24. Yu told reporters while making an inspection tour in central Taiwan that he has been in the post for three years and that's long enough. "I will be very pleased when somebody takes over my job in the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle. I want to take a rest to refresh my mind," Yu said. He said he is very confident of the competence and dedication of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) administration, adding that the government's work will not be affected by the departure of any single official. Yu and the rest of the Cabinet will resign en masse Jan. 24 to pave the way for the formation of a new Cabinet ahead of the Feb. 1 inauguration of a new Legislative Yuan.
Yu refused to speculate on who his successor might be.
■ Diplomacy
Lu talks up Central America
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday spoke about government projects in Central America aimed at boosting the electronic integration of diplomatic allies in the region. Addressing a seminar on technological development in Taiwan's industries, Lu said the nation would make use of its information technology know-how and resources to help Central American technological development. The projects include a "Taiwan park," which will bring together local industries in each country, Lu said. While the host countries will provide land, manpower and long-term investment incentives, Taiwan will provide the technology and experience in electronic integration, she said. Taiwan will also introduce a vocational training system and set up a Taiwan Institute in Central America. Lu also said that her pet project, the Democratic Pacific Union, will convene in Taipei on Aug. 14 and that an "e-Pacific" project aimed at narrowing the digital gap will feature prominently.
■ Crime
`Snakehead' executed
A man convicted of pushing six Chinese women to their deaths in a bid to escape the coast guard was executed on Wednesday, the judiciary said yesterday. Wang Chung-hsing (王中興) was executed at a Taichung prison. Wang and his crew forced 20 young women to jump into the sea as a coast guard vessel approached their ship off the west coast in August 2003. Rescue workers later found the bodies of six women. As the ring leader, Wang was sentenced to death, while three of his crew members received prison sentences. Appeals failed to overturn the death penalty for Wang, but he never accepted his sentence, a coroner said. "Snakeheads" smuggle Chinese illegal migrants across the Taiwan Strait in boats. Many such women end up working in hostess bars and brothels.
■ Crime
Child abuser sentenced
A court has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for feeding his five-month-old son glue, badly damaging the baby's sight and hearing, court officials said yester-day. The 32-year-old man, surnamed Wen, was found guilty of battery and abuse for feeding glue to his baby, now 2, on more than one occasion, a Taipei district court said. The boy has been staying with a foster family since he was found in May 2003. Wen's wife had left home alleging that she was a victim of domestic violence. The boy's brain and nervous system were severely damaged, causing irreparable damage to his limbs, hearing and sight, according to the verdict. Wen showed no remorse at the ruling and blamed the court for tearing his family apart. "I didn't do anything to hurt my son. He [the judge] destroyed a family and my relations with my son," Wen told reporters.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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:
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
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