■ 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.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
The National Museum of Taiwan Literature is next month to hold an exhibition in Osaka, Japan, showcasing the rich and unique history of Taiwanese folklore and literature. The exhibition, which is to run from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20 at the city’s Central Public Hall, is part of the “We Taiwan” at Expo 2025 series, highlighting Taiwan’s cultural ties with the international community, National Museum of Taiwan Literature director Chen Ying-fang (陳瑩芳) said. Folklore and literature, among Taiwan’s richest cultural heritages, naturally deserve a central place in the global dialogue, Chen said. Taiwan’s folklore would be immediately apparent at the entrance of the
Speeding and badly maintained roads were the main causes of a school bus accident on a rainy day in Taipei last year that severely injured two people and left 22 with minor injuries, the Taiwan Transportation and Safety Board said. On March 11 last year, a Kang Chiao International School bus overturned inside the Wenshan Tunnel (文山隧道) on the northbound lane of the Xinyi Expressway. The tour bus, owned by Long Lai Co, exceeded the speed limit after entering the tunnel, the board’s investigation found. Sensing that the rear of the vehicle was swaying, the driver attempted to use the service and exhaust
Central and southern Taiwan are to see increasingly heavy rainfall from last night through Friday due to the effects of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said Tropical Storm Co-May had weakened into a low-pressure system on Saturday, but that it strengthened again into a tropical depression (TD 11) near the seas around Japan's Ryukyu Islands due to favorable environmental conditions. The tropical depression is expected to persist for two to three days, moving west-northwest by this afternoon and reaching China's Zhejiang through the East China Sea tomorrow,
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