■ Politics
Chen vows to push reform
In his New Year's speech President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will vow to implement the second-phase of constitutional reforms through a referendum whether the legislature agrees or not, according to an official from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday. The DPP official, who wished to remain anonymous, said that how the constitutional reforms can be carried out will be the key point in the president's speech and a referendum is one means that the president will try to use to achieve this aim -- depending on whether the legislature will consent to allow such a referendum.
■ society
Bookstore maps available
A Taipei bookseller released the first ever map for locating used book stores in the capital on Thursday. According to Tai Li-chen (戴莉珍), owner of the Mollie Used Book House, the map is available for free at the store, and customers who ask the store to collect used books from their homes will also be offered a copy of the map. Since there are few used bookstores in the city, many people have no idea that there are bookstores that collect used books. The map can serve as a guide for both book lovers and those who are wanting to clean out any old books they may have in their homes, Tai said. People who wish to sell their used books are urged to call the store on (02) 2369-2780.
■ Law and order
Zanadu verdicts reached
The Taipei District Court has passed judgement in the high-profile Zanadu bribery scandal that made headlines back in 2002. Four of the 11 defendants were found guilty, including Taiwan Fertilizer chairman Hsieh Sheng-fu (謝生富), who was sentenced to 14 years. Su Hui-chen (蘇惠珍), the majority share holder in Zanadu Development Co, was found guilty on two counts of breach of trust for which she was sentenced to two years and six months, and six years respectively. She was found not guilty on violations of the Securities and Exchange Law and the Banking Law. Former senior adviser to the president Yu Chen Yueh-ying (余陳月英) was also found guilty of breach of trust and sentenced to eighteen months. Three of the accused were found not guilty, two more are still wanted. Two of the accused have died since the case commenced. The case can still be appealed.
■ Transportation
Aloha may soon comply
Taipei City Government yesterday issued an ultimatum to Aloha Bus Corp, a Kaohsiung-based bus company, asking the company to relocate their transit stops along Cheng-De Road to the city's new transit center near the Taipei Railway Station by Jan. 4. "If the company refuses to do so, the city government will cut off its water and electricity supply beginning on Jan. 16," Jason Lin (林志盈), Taipei city's transportation department head, told press conference late last night. A local TV station reported earlier last night that an agreement was reached between the company and the government, in which the company agreed to use the new transit center by Jan. 9 while it will not be forced to relocate their current transit stops to the new location. "The report was not true," Lin said, adding that the agreement reached was that the company must move its current transit stops along Cheng-De Road.
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