■ AGRICULTURE
Storm damage mounts
The Council of Agriculture continued to tally reports of crop devastation from Typhoon Krosa yesterday. It said damage estimates rose to NT$2.3 billion (US$ 70.56 million) as of 5pm yesterday. An estimated 52,955 hectares were affected, with a crop destruction rate of 24 percent, meaning that an equivalent of 12,948 hectares of crops have been lost. Seriously affected crops include bananas, rice, persimmons, mandarin oranges, grapes, guavas, wax apples and papayas. Prices of vegetables have soared nationwide, with the price of cucumbers, spring onions and cabbages all affected by the typhoon.
■ JUDICIARY
Special courts formed
The Taiwan High Court formed special courts yesterday to hear President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) appeal for the return of documents he claims contain national secrets. Last Friday, the Taipei District Court rejected Chen's claim that documents seized in the "state affairs fund" investigation are classified and should be returned by the court. It said it would retain them as evidence for the trial. The Taiwan High Court said in a press statement yesterday that it had formed eight special courts -- each composed of a senior proceeding judge and three other judges -- in accordance with the Council of Grand Justices' Interpretation No. 627, which states that the president has the right to decide what constitutes a national secret. The interpretation said the president could appeal the district court's ruling within five days and the appeal would be decided by a special court of the Taiwan High Court.
■ DIPLOMACY
Chen pushes free trade deal
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday that he hoped Taiwan and the Dominican Republic would sign a free trade agreement (FTA) as soon as possible to benefit companies in both countries. Chen made the remarks during a meeting with visiting Dominican Republic Vice President Rafael Alburquerque, who is in Taipei to take part in National Day celebrations tomorrow. Taiwan and the Dominican Republic have concluded a first round of FTA negotiations, and Chen urged talks to continue to strengthen bilateral trade and economic ties. Central American states that have signed FTAs with Taiwan -- including Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras -- are diplomatic allies of Taiwan.
■ POLITICS
DPP in pork beef
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Wang Tuoh (王拓) and David Huang (黃偉哲) denied yesterday that the government had asked Washington to drop its opposition to a referendum on Taiwan's UN bid in return for allowing imports of ractopamine-tainted pork from the US. Wang and Huang attacked the Chinese-language China Times for a report on Sunday that said American Institute in Taiwan Director Stephen Young and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王今平) met last month to discuss the issue. Wang Tuoh said the government would never contemplate such a deal. Huang said that only 10,000 tonnes of pork is imported from the US each year, but that the total amount of pork consumed here every year was more than 1 million tonnes. It was inconceivable that Washington would change its mind on the referendum over such a miniscule trade figure, he said. Wang Jin-pyng also denied the allegation at a separate press conference.
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