■ 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.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
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