■ TRANSPORTATION
Temporary bridge opens
A temporary bridge constructed to replace Chiahsien Bridge in Kaohsiung County, which collapsed when Typhoon Sinlaku struck last month, opened to traffic yesterday. Repair work had just begun when Typhoon Jangmi arrived, washing out the feeder road to the temporary structure. The Directorate General of Highways’ maintenance office said a maximum load restriction of 20 tonnes has been imposed on the 100m long temporary structure because of the special supports under the bridge. Planning work on a new bridge was under way and construction work will be contracted out before the end of this year, the office said. It will take about two years to build a new bridge. The temporary bridge and feeder road will be closed during the flood season and during typhoons for safety reasons, the office said.
■ WILDLIFE
Buzzards set Kenting record
More than 11,000 gray-faced buzzards passed Kenting National Park on Tuesday, setting a single-day record, park administration specialist Tsai Yi-jung (蔡乙榮) said. Since the park began keeping track of the number of the birds passing Kenting, the previous one-day high was 8,300 on Oct. 11, 2005, while the largest number for a season was 35,800 in 2006, he said. As of Tuesday, more than 24,000 gray-faced buzzards had passed Kenting, Tsai said. The birds usually fly through Taiwan between Oct. 1 and Oct. 20, with the largest numbers of migrating birds seen around Oct. 10.
This year, the massive movement started last Thursday, with more than 3,000 flying toward the sea last Friday. Since then, the number has averaged between 1,000 and 3,000 per day, he said.
TRAVEL
HK to relax travel limits
Hong Kong will relax travel restrictions on Taiwanese visitors next year as part of its effort to improve business and tourist links, Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) said yesterday. In his annual policy address, Tsang said the territory’s immigration department would lift restrictions that limit Taiwanese visitors to two entry applications each within any 30-day period. The government will also extend the limit of stay for Taiwanese from 14 days to 30 days for holders of certain visas, he said. The measures will “provide greater convenience for frequent business visitors and tourists from Taiwan,” he said. Tsang said he had appointed Financial Secretary John Tsang (曾俊華) to head an inter-departmental steering committee that aims to design action plans on closer economic and trade ties with Taiwan. He said his government was also encouraging industrial and business leaders from both sides to form a Hong Kong-Taiwan Business Cooperation Committee.
■ CRIME
Taiwanese arrested in HK
Two Taiwanese men appeared in court in Hong Kong yesterday, charged with possessing banned weapons and ammunition. They were arrested at the Asia World-Expo on Tuesday. A Hong Kong police spokeswoman yesterday identified the pair as a 46-year-old surnamed Fu and a 47-year-old surnamed Liu. She said police had received a tip on Tuesday that vendors at the fair were selling banned items. Taser guns and pepper spray were found hidden at Fu’s booth, while Tasers, handcuffs and ammunition cartridges were found at Liu’s booth, she said. Hong Kong law requires anyone who wants to import Tasers or sell them in the territory to apply at customs for police approval. Violators face a maximum fine of HK$10,000 (US$1,290) and up to three years in prison.
■ TRANSPORTATION
‘No turn on red’ policy stays
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday that it would not amend regulations to allow motorists to turn right on all red lights. At present motorists can only turn right at a red light when there is a right-turn signal. Based on National Police Agency (NPA) statistics, there are 1,259 intersections nationwide that have right-turn signals. Lin Fu-shan (林福山), of the ministry’s Department of Railways and Highways, said the agency had assessed the possibility of changing the policy and found that a majority of the intersections do not have the proper conditions to allow motorists to turn right without a signal. As 107 motorists have been killed under such circumstances, the NPA suggested the ministry not lift the ban, Lin said. An additional 258 intersections nationwide now fulfill safety conditions and can allow for right turns on red lights, he said.
■ POLITICS
Chen may sue commentator
The office of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday threatened to take legal action against a political commentator who claimed that Chen had deposited more than NT$30 billion (US$926 million) in Japan. The office issued a statement dismissing the allegations made by Yao Li-ming (姚立明) as “preposterous,” saying that Chen had asked his attorney to “file a lawsuit immediately.” Yao claimed during a TV talk show on Monday that he had learned through “official channels” that Chen had more than NT$30 billion in deposits in Japan. Yao yesterday said he welcomed the suit as it would give him the opportunity to tell the court what he knew and that he would be happy to cooperate with the Special Investigation Panel should they feel the need to talk to him.
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