■ POLITICS
Hsieh leaves for Singapore
Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday embarked on a five-day visit to Singapore and Indonesia. Hsieh told reporters at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport that he expects to meet and exchange ideas on international affairs with Singaporean leaders. He will also visit the National Trades Union Congress Centre during his stay in Singapore and speak at two breakfast and lunch meetings with businesspeople during his visit to Indonesia on Tuesday, based on the itinerary provided by Hsieh's campaign office. Upon his return to the country on Wednesday, Hsieh will proceed directly to the 228 Memorial Park in Taipei and announce his running mate at the rally, his campaign office said.
■ TRANSPORTATION
Brake trouble on bullet train
A northbound train on the high-speed rail was delayed for more than 90 minutes yesterday when an abnormality was discovered in the train's braking system. The No. 502 train, which was departing from Taichung, was supposed to arrive in Taipei at 8am yesterday. The incident yesterday morning postponed the operations of other trains, including northbound trains No. 504, No. 404, No. 104 and No. 106, as well as southbound trains No. 403, No. 105, No. 451, No. 111 and No. 453. Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp issued a statement yesterday that said the 260 passengers on its No. 502 train qualified for a full refund based on the company's policy. The estimated refund was approximately NT$720,000 (US$21,800).
■ HEALTH
Alzheimer's alert raised
The number of people with Alzheimer's disease reached about 140,000 in the country last year, and the figure could double in the next 20 years, a Taiwan Alzheimer's Disease Association official said yesterday. To cope with the rapid increase in the number of people with Alzheimer's, association secretary-general Tang Li-yu (湯麗玉) yesterday called for efforts to facilitate early detection and treatment of the disease, as well as concerted efforts by the government and private sector to care for Alzheimer's victims. Although there is no cure for Alzheimer's, there are steps that the public can take to lower the risks or delay the onset of the disease, she said. People with high blood pressure and diabetes are at a higher risk from Alzheimer's, she said, adding that these groups should take greater efforts to control their diets and do physical and mental exercises. Tang also urged the government to spend more on raising public awareness about Alzheimer's, noting that many people with the disease have yet to be diagnosed.
■ DIPLOMACY
St. Lucian acting PM to visit
St. Lucian Acting Prime Minister Stephenson King will visit Taiwan next month for the first time at the invitation of the government, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday. King assumed the post of acting prime minister in May after 82-year-old Prime Minister John Compton was hospitalized in April. The Caribbean island nation resumed formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan on May 1. It first established diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1984, before switching diplomatic recognition to China in 1997. The ministry official said St. Lucia's ruling party was likely to hold a vote to choose a new party chairman, with Compton likely to be elected again. The focus of the vote would be on who would be the first vice chairman as he or she would be Compton's successor.
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