■ POLITICS
Chiayi official sentenced
A Chiayi County village chief was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison yesterday for his role in a vote-buying case. Chiayi District Court convicted Lai Chun-an (賴俊安), chief of Kuanshih Village (寬士), Shuishang Township (水上), of giving NT$6,000 to his neighbor, Hsiao Su-miao (蕭素妙), on Jan. 2 so that Hsiao could offer NT$1,500 per vote to help Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative candidate Wong Chung-chun (翁重鈞) get elected in the Jan. 12 polls. The judges also ruled that Lai would lose his civil rights for six years. Lai denied buying votes. Hsiao, however, admitted receiving NT$6,000 from Lai and having been told by Lai "to win votes for the candidate." Hsiao was given a two-month jail term with two years' probation for taking bribes, and lost her civil rights for one year.
■ HEALTH
Defibrillators wanted
Taipei City plans to install defibrillators in public places to boost the chances of saving heart attack victims, health official Kao Wei-chun (高偉君) said yesterday. Automated external defibrillators (AED) would be placed in MRT stations, the National Palace Museum, Maokong Gondola stations and public spaces in Taipei 101 by the end of the year, Kao said. But since the city's health department does not have money to buy the AEDs, it is seeking private sector donations, Kao said. The central government has been encouraging people to learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). If rescuers use CPR and an AED device on heart attack victims, a victim's survival rate will increase by 7 percent within one minute of an attack, said Chao Chun-chieh (趙君傑), emergency room director at Taipei City Hospital's Zhongxiao branch. If only CPR is used, then the survival rate drops by 7 percent, he said.
■ POLITICS
DPP readies new NCC names
Democratic Progressive Party caucus leader Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said yesterday the the party will submit a shortlist of nominees for the National Communications Commission (NCC) to the Executive Yuan within the next two days. All the names will be new candidates, Ker said, adding that he hoped the Executive Yuan would finalize the nomination list before the presidential election.
ECONOMY
No hoarding established
No incidents of hoarding have been found in the wake of a recent surge in oil and commodity prices, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday. The FTC established an investigation team late last year after prices of some necessities soared as a result of surging import prices. Supplies of basic necessities, including toilet paper, have been normal and most suppliers and producers have no plans to hike prices, officials said. The Taiwan Paper Industry Association said prices of paper products had soared 19.4 percent year-on-year as of the end of last month, because rising oil prices boosted pulp costs.
■ HEALTH
Sperm woes in Taipei
More than one-quarter of 1,345 married men in Taipei City who had their sperm tested last year suffered from insufficient or inactive sperm, 10 percent more than the year before,city health officials said yesterday. Chen Chi-yu (陳致宇), a doctor in the Ob-gyn department of Taipei City Hospital's Renai branch, said stress, pollution and bad food could impact on sperm production or motility. The exams also found a growing incidence of bladder and kidney problems, two cases of AIDS and five cases of syphilis, officials said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
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