■ POLITICS
Chen claim disputed
The Presidential Office yesterday cast doubt on former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) claim that he had paid the person who was in charge of his 2004 presidential campaign NT$20 million (US$625,000) with his “state affairs fund” in 2003. An official at the Presidential Office, who asked to remain anonymous, said the financial records of the Presidential Office showed that Hau Kuang-tsai (郝廣才) had been paid NT$12 million over the years for the service his two companies provided to Chen, but that only NT$499,000 came from Chen’s “state affairs fund.” The official said that Chen spent about NT$1 million to NT$4 million of his “state affairs fund” each month. The office paid Hau NT$3.36 million in 2003, but the money did not come from the “state affairs fund,” the official said.
■ CRIME
Liao impeached for conduct
Liao Yuan-lung (廖源隆), former director of the Department of the Ministry’s East Rift Valley National Scenic Area, was impeached by the Control Yuan yesterday for sexual harassment of two women. Liao was caught on tape putting his hands on the shoulders of two assistants of Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩) at a dinner gathering in the end of 2005. Control Yuan member Chao Chang-ping (趙昌平) said Liao, being a senior public servant, should behave himself. “After investigation, we thought that Liao’s licentious behavior had harmed the image of senior public servants,” Chao said.
■ HEALTH
Traditional cures showcased
The Taiwan Traditional Chinese Medicine Association will hold its first traditional medicine and pharmacy expo on Sunday to increase public awareness and combat misconceptions about the basics of the discipline. “The 2008 exposition will take place in Taichung City,” the association said at a promotional activity that was attended by Taichung Deputy Mayor Hsiao Chia-chi (蕭家旗). While touting the advantages of traditional medicine, Chang said it was not a substitute for visiting a certified physician when needed. Although traditional medicine is quite popular, there are a variety of misconceptions and folk remedies are often mistakenly described as traditional Chinese medicine, Hsiao said. He described Sunday’s fair as an opportunity for the public to gain an accurate understanding of traditional Chinese medicine, which has been practiced for thousands of years.
■ TYPHOONS
Hagupit skirts Taiwan
Typhoon Hagupit skirted Taiwan yesterday on its way to China. After leaving at least one dead and three missing in the Philippines, the eye of Hagupit churned into the Bashi Channel (巴士海峽) separating Taiwan from the Philippines. It brought strong winds and heavy rain across parts of Taiwan but no damage or injuries were reported. The Central Weather Bureau lifted a land warning for Hagupit early yesterday as the storm headed toward the coast of China’s Guangdong Province. By 5:30am yesterday, the center of Hagupit was 360km southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Pingtung County, while the typhoon’s perimeter, with a radius of 280km, had entered the South China Sea. The perimeter was expected to make landfall in Guangdong late today. Typhoon Sinlaku, which crossed Taiwan’s northern tip on Sept. 14, caused landslides in mountainous areas and left at least 12 people dead. Another 11 remain missing.
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
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
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