■ MILITARY
Embezzlement charges made
An army lieutenant general has been charged with embezzling NT$1.3 million (US$40,000), officials said yesterday. Lieutenant General Cheng Shih-yu (程士瑜), former commander of the Sixth Army Corps, was indicted last week, Vice Minister of Defense Ko Chen-heng (柯承亨) told reporters. "The defense ministry respects the results of the probe and the indictment," he said, declining to provide further details about the case. The Chinese-language China Times said military prosecutors would seek a 16-year jail term -- the toughest sentence ever sought for a ranking officer -- as Cheng had failed to admit his crimes and ask for forgiveness.
■ SOCIETY
Numbers get high bids
The Taipei City vehicle registration department said yesterday that the auction for motorcycle license plate number "AA-01" had been won, with a bid of NT$511,000 (US$15,500). The license plate was one of several issued by the Directorate General of Highways (DGH) and put up for online bidding in August. The department said the bid had set a 15-year record. Aside from "AA-01," other numbers were also in high demand. The number "BB-88," for example, was won with a bid of NT$18,000. Starting next month, the DGH will allow owners of motorcycles with a cylinder capacity of 550cc or above to use expressways and fast lanes on regular roads. The bikes will be required to observe laws governing sedans.
■ TRANSPORTATION
Tunnel fire drill scheduled
The Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau is scheduled to hold fire drills in the Hsuehshan Tunnel today and on Thursday. The northbound and southbound lanes of the Chiang Wei-shui Freeway (National Freeway No. 5) linking Shihding (石碇) and Toucheng (頭城) will be closed from 9pm until 2am. The drills are part of the legal requirements that must be met before large-sized passenger vehicles can operate on the freeway. Starting on Nov. 15, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications will begin allowing large-sized passenger vehicles on the freeway. During the drills, motorists are advised to take other routes, including Provincial Highways 2 and 9 and County Highway 106. They are also advised to listen to the Police Radio Station of Taiwan for information.
■ JUSTICE
Chen appeals court ruling
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) appealed yesterday a Taipei District Court ruling that rejected his declaration that documents seized in the "state affairs fund" case constitute classified information and should therefore be returned by the court. The district court also said it would continue to keep them and use them as evidence during the trial. Attorney John Chen (陳傳岳) told a press conference yesterday that the president had appealed the ruling to the Taiwan High Court. He said that Grand Justices Rulings No. 328 and No. 419 stipulated that the president enjoys the privilege of national secrets involving military, diplomacy and national security, which the judiciary has no right to hear. In addition, Grand Justices Ruling No. 627 does not enable the court to decide what constitutes a national secret. He said that Ruling No. 627 adds that the president has the right to interpret or explain why the documents seized in the "state affairs fund" concern national secrets, but that the district court did not allow him to do so.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Worms unnerve owner
Hundreds of thousands of earthworms appeared in a vineyard in Changhua County, prompting the owner to consult an expert out of fear that a strong earthquake might be imminent, the Chinese-language China Times reported yesterday. The report said that the worms crawled out of the earth and covered the surface of Wu Ching-chuan's (吳清泉) vineyard on Sunday morning. Wu said he had never seen so many worms and estimated there were 200kg to 300kg of them. Wu said he feared that a major quake might be coming because worms and snakes are known to come to the surface when disturbed by seismic activity. Wu consulted a farm expert who said the earthworms crawled out because his vineyard was flooded when Typhoon Krosa hit on Oct. 5. Although earthworms like humid environment, they cannot stand extreme moisture or when the underground water level rises too high, the expert said.
■ TRANSPORTATION
Councilors want bike space
Three Taipei City councilors yesterday called for a comprehensive network of bicycle paths for the capital. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) councilors Wang Chih-ping (汪志冰), Dai Hsi-chin (戴錫欽) and Chen Yu-mei (陳玉梅) made the call after examining bicycle traffic around several Mass Rapid Transport stations yesterday. Last month the city government began fining cyclists who illegally ride in fast traffic lanes or on the sidewalk, forcing them to use the road. Dai said it was common to see cars jostling motorbikes for road space, forcing the motorbikes to crowd bicycles off the road. To protect themselves, cyclists often risk fines by riding on the sidewalk, 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