■ WEATHER
Cold front hits nation
Temperatures were expected to plummet last night as the season's first cold front swept across the nation, the Central Weather Bureau reported yesterday. The cold front arriving from northern China was expected to hit last night and will linger for about three days before leaving on Thursday, with lows reaching 7oC in open, coastal areas of central and northeastern parts of the nation, the bureau said. Meteorologists called on the public to watch out for sudden temperature changes and advised farmers and fishermen to take protective measures to care for their crops. Temperatures dropped to 12.6oC in Tamsui yesterday morning. During the daytime, temperatures are expected to reach 18oC in the north and 20oC in central and southern areas. Lows for central and northern regions are expected to remain under 10oC until Jan. 3, the bureau said.
■ POLITICS
Su denies DPP tensions
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice presidential candidate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday dismissed speculation that there was tension between him and presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷). Su said that he, Hsieh and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) enjoyed an appropriate division of labor and were all dedicated to campaigning for the upcoming elections. While Hsieh is busy promoting policies, Su said, he would spend more time campaigning for the party's legislative candidates. If there is any lapse in communication or delegation of duty, they are more than happy to examine it and make adjustments accordingly, he said. Su spent yesterday campaigning in Pingtung County and City, while Hsieh was campaigning in Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan. Chen was in Taichung and Pingtung.
■ Diplomacy
AIT offices closed
The offices of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) will be closed tomorrow in observance of New Year's Day. The closure includes the Consular Section, the Commercial Section, the Agricultural Trade Office, the American Cultural Center and the AIT Kaohsiung branch office. All offices will re-open on Jan. 2 and resume operations as normal.
■ SOCIETY
Wu condition improving
First lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) remained hospitalized, but her condition was improving following treatment, National Taiwan University (NTU) hospital sources said. NTU hospital spokesman Tan Ching-ting (譚慶鼎) and Wong Chao-wen (翁昭旼), a member of Wu's medical team, spoke to the media yesterday at around noon to provide an update on the first lady's condition. Wu was hospitalized at 6:10pm on Saturday after a cold developed into a minor lung inflammation. At the time of her admission, Wu had been running a high fever for four days. At its peak, Wu's temperature reached 39.2oC, but after treatment it came down to about 38oC, Tan said. Tests showed that her white blood-cell count was too high and that she was suffering from an electrolyte imbalance and low blood pressure. "Despite the fact that she is doing better ... we still cannot predict when she will be ready to leave hospital," Wong 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
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