■ Society
Students want friends not sex
Making friends is the most desired experience among university freshmen besides pursuing studies, according to a survey released yesterday by the National Taiwan Normal University. More than 80 percent of freshmen interviewed in the survey said they would like to strike up friendships with as many people as possible, while 53 percent mentioned they would like to fall in love. Fifty percent also wanted internships in their chosen field. Meanwhile, having a sexual experience was mentioned by 17 percent of respondents as their most desired college experience, publishing a thesis was mentioned by 15 percent, traveling abroad was named by 49 percent and reading classic literature was mentioned by 26 percent.
■ Politics
Speaker candidates named
The two major political parties yesterday named their candidates for Kaohsiung City Council speaker and deputy speaker in an election to be held next Monday. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) City Councilor-elect Chuang Chi-wang (莊啟旺) defeated colleagues Tsai Ma-fu (蔡媽福) and Huang Shao-ting (黃紹庭) for the speaker's nomination at a caucus meeting yesterday. Chuang will likely seek to run with an independent councilor as deputy speaker. The Democratic Progressive Party also chose its candidates at a caucus meeting, with City Councilor-elect Chou Ling-wen (周玲妏) and Lin Wu-chung (林武忠) securing the nominations. The KMT holds 17 seats on the council, the DPP has 15, the People First Party four and the Taiwan Solidarity Union one, but the balance of power is held by seven independent councilors-elect, from whom the main parties are expected to seek support to fill the posts.
■ Maritime affairs
Boat poses pollution threat
The hull of a fishing boat stranded off the island of Little Lanyu (小蘭嶼) 5.3km southeast of Lanyu (Orchid Island), has broken apart in strong winds and high waves over the past few days, triggering concerns of a fuel leak. The Chinmingtsai No. 7, registered in Pingtung County, ran aground off Little Lanyu on Dec. 12. All 11 crew members were rescued. However, due to bad weather, no ships have been able to approach the boat, which has 132 tonnes of diesel fuel on board. No fuel oil had been detected in the waters around the boat as of yesterday afternoon, said Taitung County officials in charge of environmental protection. Because of the threat to the area, the Environmental Protection Administration has set up a pollution hazard control and prevention center to monitor the situation.
■ Politics
Wu will not lie down: office
It would be inappropriate for first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) to appear in court lying down, a Presidential Office official said yesterday. "We respect the judicial system, but human rights and human dignity must also be upheld," said Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). "I do not think it is a good idea for the first lady to appear in court lying down nor would I recommend that she do so." Cho made the remarks in response to reporters' inquiries about a comment made by one of the judges presiding over Wu's case that she should consider appearing in court lying in bed if she still felt sick. As Wu's condition is still unstable, Cho said that they were not sure whether Wu would appear in court again on Friday. They would respect the decision of medical staff and Wu would appear if she is fit enough to do so, he 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
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