■ POLITIC
Chiu Yi back in action
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) yesterday received a warm welcome from his party colleagues upon returning to the legislature following the completion of his seven-month jail term at Kaohsiung Prison. Flanked by KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and KMT caucus whip Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) at a press conference, Chiu vowed to continue to "expose scandals" involving the Democratic Progressive Party. Chiu was sentenced to 14 months in prison for violent conduct during a protest outside the Kaohsiung District Court following the 2004 presidential election. Chiu began his sentence in April, but his 14-month term was halved under a commutation statute in June. Saying that Chiu's sentence was a set-up, Wu said the KMT welcomed Chiu back to the "family" as a "national hero."
■ EDUCATION
Universities sign deal
National Chengchi University yesterday signed a dual-degree program deal with the American University in Washington, marking the first time a political science program in Taiwan has collaborated with a foreign institution, NCCU representative Teng Chung-chian (鄧中堅) said. Starting in September, US and Taiwanese students will have the option of obtaining a degree from either school by studying abroad for one-and-half years to complete a bachelor's or one year to complete a master's. Cheng said the cost of studying in the US was approximately NT$1.3 million (US$40,000) per year, but the school would provide scholarships for qualified students.
■ EVENTS
`Nanking' to be screened
A US-produced documentary about the Nanjing massacre, Nanking, will be screened in Taiwan from Nov. 30, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) announced yesterday. AIT issued a statement saying the Taipei release of the film came before the 70th anniversary of the December 1937 incident. The film features archive footage and photos of the event, interviews with survivors, testimonies by former Japanese soldiers and accounts of the small group of Westerners who established a safe zone where more than 200,000 Chinese found refuge. Oscar-winning directors Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman and producer Ted Leonsis will be in Taipei to attend the Golden Horse Festival on Nov. 28 and Nov. 29 to present two screenings of their film followed by seminars.
■ POLITICS
Ministry explains objection
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy Spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) told a press conference yesterday that Taipei had objected to the proposed appointment of a Chinese judge to a WTO body that settles disputes in order to protect the nation's interests. On Monday Taiwan raised the objection against Chinese lawyer Zhang Yuejiao (張月姣), one of four candidates set to be named to the WTO's seven-member Appellate Body. Yeh said Taiwan wanted the WTO to ensure Zhang would be impartial in the settling of disputes before approving her appointment. "We are concerned because China never stops harrassing Taiwan at the WTO." If appointed, Zhang will become the first Chinese to take up a WTO post since the country joined the global trade body in 2001.
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