■ LEGISLATURE
`Lid amendment' passes
Transportation Committee lawmakers yesterday passed the first reading of an amendment to the Highway Law (公路法) which would require Taiwan Power Co and Taiwan Water Corp contractors to bury the lids of sewage or electricity lines under road surfaces. The amendment would require that the lids be installed several centimeters beneath the road surface, and then the road surface evened out with asphalt. The bill was proposed because many motorists have asked for compensation from the government for injuries or deaths caused by uneven roads. Ministry of the Interior officials tried to prevent the reading of the amendment, saying road conditions would worsen if the asphalt-filling work was not thoroughly executed. If maintenance work was needed on the utility lines, the roads would have to be dug up, they said.
■ IMMIGRATION
Lawmaker concerned
A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator expressed concern yesterday that the Nationality Law (國籍法) could provide a fast track for foreign nationals to become Republic of China (ROC) citizens. Legislator Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) said Item I of Article 3 of the law stipulates that foreigners or non-ROC citizens who remain in the country for more than 183 days per year for five consecutive years are allowed to apply for citizenship. This might open the door to foreign nationals, particularly those hired to work on fishing vessels, or as household helpers and care givers, since these people are now allowed to stay in the country for up to six consecutive years. Wang said the legislature must close this loophole. Members of the Home and Nations Committee said that they would study whether the law needed revising.
■ LABOR
Unions demand wage hike
Trade and teachers' groups yesterday urged the government to raise the minimum wage -- which has been frozen for a decade -- to make it more commensurate with the general economic situation and consumer price index. Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions and National Teachers' Association representatives demanded that the government raise the minimum wage immediately to show that it was concerned about the "survival rights" of low-level workers. Union chairman Shih Chao-hsien (施朝賢) said that enormous amounts of capital have flowed overseas in recent years as a result of the government's liberalization policies. The outflow of capital has compromised domestic workers' rights and interests, he said. Shih said the minimum wage, which has remained at NT$15,840 per month, or NT$66 per hour, for 10 years, does not reflect economic reality, including rising inflation.
■ CRIME
Smuggling still rampant
Kaohsiung customs agents seized contraband products worth more than NT$42 million (US$1.2 million) in 249 cases in the first quarter of this year, according to the Kaohsiung Customs Office. The high value of the contraband highlights the fact that smuggling remains rampant in the first three months of the year despite a drive by authorities to wipe out illicit imports, officials said. Many of the items, including illegal drugs, unlawful chemical substances and firearms were concealed on shipping boats or inside containers. Some pricey contraband goods had also been disguised as cheaper products by smuggling rings in an attempt to import them at lower tariff rates, the customs officials 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