■ weather
Rainy days expected
Showers are expected in the days ahead as a cold front is forecast to hit the nation this evening, the Central Weather Bureau said. Rains are forecast in the northern, northeastern and eastern regions, as well as in Kinmen (金門), Matsu (馬祖) and Penghu (澎湖). Fog may also occur in the west, and in Kinmen and Matsu today. The effect of the frontal system is expected to be felt till next Wednesday, the bureau said. Temperatures are forecast to drop to a low of 16?C in the north, 17?C in central Taiwan and 18? in southern and eastern Taiwan next week.
■ politics
HK bars MAC official
A leader of an election observation team dispatched by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) was refused entry into Hong Kong yesterday. The team flew to Hong Kong to observe the territory's chief executive election tomorrow. However, Chang Chi-yu (張志宇), a specialist at the council, was barred from entry when the team arrived in Hong Kong. Prior to joining MAC, Chang served at the Chung Hwa Travel Service Hong Kong, Taiwan's representative office in Hong Kong, MAC Vice Chairman Johnnason Liu (劉德勳) said. While Chang had a valid visa when he flew to Hong Kong, Chinese authorities canceled his visa upon arrival, Liu said. Chang returned to Taiwan yesterday.
■ politics
Lu helps school pupils
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) co-chaired a ceremony yesterday celebrating a Presidential Office charity program for underprivileged school children. Speaking at the ceremony, Lu said it was extremely important to take care of the needs of the nation's children and build a positive learning environment for them. The vice president also called on more private companies to join forces with her to help underprivileged school kids.
■ culture
Museum IT network opens
The US-based Museum Computer Network (MCN), a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering the cultural aims of museums through the use of computer technologies, opened its Taiwan branch yesterday. A ceremony marking the establishment of MCN in Taiwan was held at the National Science Council yesterday. National Digital Archives Program manager Chen Shu-chun said the new institution would work to promote digitalization of historic and cultural data from the nation's museums and academic institutions, including the National Palace Museum and the Academia Sinica, and assist the facilities in displaying their archives through the use of automation.
■ transportation
MRT plans welcomed
Taichung Deputy Mayor Hsiao Chia-chi (蕭家旗) yesterday said he hoped construction of the green line of the proposed mass rapid transit (MRT) system would be completed quickly to mitigate traffic congestion in the city. The deputy mayor made the remarks after the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced a day earlier that construction of the MRT system would begin in October. Hsiao said that the ministry would begin erecting fences along the MRT routes in October and that the designs for the MRT system would be completed early next year. Construction of the green line, which will link up with a high speed railway station, is scheduled to be completed in 2012.
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