■ POLITICS
Legislator switches parties
The Taiwan Solidarity Union yesterday revoked Chao Lien-chu's (趙連出) legislative candidacy as Chao will run as the Dadao Compassion Jishih Party's (大道慈悲濟世黨) vice presidential candidate next year. Chao is required by law to deposit NT$1 million (US$31,250) and collect 240,000 signatures endorsing his election bid before Dec. 31. The Central Election Commission can confiscate the deposit if Chao fails to collect the required signatures. The Dadao Compassion Jishih Party is one of six political parties established during the second half of this year.
■ Diplomacy
New diplomats named
Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator-at-large George Liu (劉寬平) has been assigned to succeed Rex Wang (王世榕) as the country's representative to Switzerland, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy Spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) told a press conference yesterday. Charles Liu (劉溪泉), chief of the third bureau of the presidential office, was assigned as the next representative to Denmark, Yeh said. Deputy Representative to the US Stanley Kao (高碩泰) will become the representative to Hungary and Ingrid Hsing (邢瀛輝), serving at the country's embassy in Panama, was designated as representative to Ecuador as part of the latest diplomatic reshuffle, Yeh said.
■ Defense
Retired officer sentenced
A retired top military intelligence officer was convicted yesterday of collecting and publishing classified information in a book, the High Court said. Pang Ta-wei (龐大為), a former deputy section chief of the Military Intelligence Bureau, was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison, but his term was reduced to 18 months in accordance with the commutation bill enacted in July, High Court spokesman Wen Yao-yuan (溫耀源) said. "Pang was sentenced to one year and eight months for collecting national defense documents that must not be made public. [Pang] was also given a two-year jail term for leaking such documents," Wen said. It was not immediately clear whether Pang would appeal and the Ministry of National Defense declined to comment on the ruling. Among the information disclosed was information relating to his unit's spying operations in China from 1992 to 1997, press reports said. Pang claimed he did not intend to reveal national secrets.
■ Policing
Fishermen lodge complaint
A group of fishermen lodged a protest yesterday against the Southern Taiwan Operations of the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) over harsh treatment by the coast guard regarding definitions of the nature of their catch. Complaining that the coast guard converges on the Hsiaokang (小港) fishing port whenever their vessels enter port to inspect their catch, and labels large volumes of their fishery produce as "smuggled," the fishermen called for Yang Li-chuan (楊麗川), director of the CGA Southern Taiwan Operations, to step down. The fishermen complained that even the catch they bring in themselves from the open seas has been labeled "smuggled" by CGA patrol officers. The CGA patrol officers, however, argued that smuggling has been rampant among Taiwan's fishing sector in recent years and said that the government has resolved to weed out smuggling. They said the illicit activity had infringed upon the interests of local fishermen.
■ TECHNOLOGY
Maxtor hard drives recalled
The Consumer Protection Commission ordered a recall of 3.5 inch Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 external hard drives through a press release yesterday. A Trojan virus was found on 320GB and 500GB hard drives models sold after September, the press release said. Xander International Corp, distributor of the hard drives, said that customers may obtain a refund at retail stores where they purchased the hard drives or exchange them for a new hard drive at Xander service centers across the country or original retail stores, the press release said. In addition, those who want to keep the merchandise may download free anti-virus software at www.seagate.com/www/zh-tw/support/downloads/personal_storage/ps3200-sw. For details, please visit www.xander.com.tw.
■ SCIENCE
Bone implants improved
Taiwanese biotech researchers have successfully applied a new material to the coating process in the production of artificial bone implants, both improving the prognosis of patients and shortening the time for recovery, academic sources said yesterday. The research team, gathering staff members from Feng Chia University (FCU) in Taichung City and Taichung Veterans General Hospital (TVGH), has spent two years on integrating the material -- titanium dioxide in anatase form -- into the coating process, members said, adding that the beneficial effects have been proven in recent clinical experiments. Tsou Hsi-kai (鄒錫凱), a member of TVGH's Neurosurgery Department and a team member, said that compared to conventional coating -- hydroxyapatite -- the new one better facilitates bone structure regeneration and thus shortens the recovery period.
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