■ HEALTH
HIV births declining: DOH
The number of babies born with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is declining, with statistics showing that since last year there have been no recorded births of HIV-infected infants, the Department of Health reported on Tuesday. Department statistics showed that Taiwan had recorded five cases of babies born with HIV in 2005 and four in 2006. As of Nov. 30, the number of children born with HIV stood at 27, the figures showed. The department in 2005 implemented a number of measures to stem mother-to-infant HIV transmission during pregnancy. The measures focused on three major areas — disease screening, medical treatment and healthcare. As a result, since 2005, 95 babies born to HIV-positive mothers have tested free of the disease, the department said. The department estimates that the risk of mother-to-infant HIV transmission during pregnancy would drop from 45 percent to 2 percent if the mothers adopt preventative medical care.
■ SOCIETY
‘Chaos’ is word of the year
“Chaos” has been chosen as the word of the year after a turbulent 12 months marred by high-profile corruption scandals implicating former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and top officials. Among 61,600 people who took part in a telephone poll, nearly 8,000 voted for the Chinese character luan (亂, chaos), followed by pian (騙, lie) and can (慘, miserable), said the Chinese-language United Daily News, a co-organizer of the survey. Also on the list of the top 10 annual characters were “corrupt,” “depressed” and “love” — the only positive word of the year.
■ DIPLOMACY
AIT closes for Christmas
All offices of the American Institute (AIT) in Taiwan will be closed next Thursday and Friday for Christmas. This includes the Consular Section, the Commercial Section, the Agricultural Trade Office, the American Cultural Center and the AIT Kaohsiung branch office. All offices will reopen on Dec. 29 at the usual time.
■ CRIME
Egg thrower fined
Chiayi resident Lee Chung-ching (李仲清) was fined NT$1,000 on Tuesday for throwing eggs at the Presidential Office. Taipei District Court said that Lee, 57, arrived outside the Presidential Office on July 21 to protest against the government’s policy to lift the ban on chipmakers relocating factories to China. Lee purchased 12 eggs at a convenience store and threw them at the Presidential Office. He was immediately arrested by military police and transferred to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, where he was indicted on charges of making a public insult.
■ JUSTICE
Cheng Yung-chin cleared
The Hsinchu District Court on Tuesday dismissed a corruption case involving Hsinchu County Commissioner Cheng Yung-chin (鄭永金). In its verdict, the court said judges had dismissed the case against Cheng as the evidence presented by prosecutors was insufficient to support the charges. In the same case, Hsinchu County Secretary-General Chan Chien-tung (詹前通) and employee Huang Chin-chiu (黃金球) were sentenced to five months and 12 years in jail respectively. Cheng, Chan and Huang were indicted by Hsinchu District prosecutors in August 2006 on allegations they accepted a NT$1 million (US$30,000) bribe in return for helping expedite a construction company’s application for a construction license.
■ TELEVISION
NCC targets ad
The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said it had asked 17 TV stations to reschedule the broadcast of a motorcycle commercial until after 9pm as the content was deemed inappropriate for minors. NCC spokesperson Lee Ta-sung (李大嵩) said the commission had entrusted an independent committee to review the commercial, which showed a young couple getting into a fight on an overpass. The committee of media researchers and children’s rights advocates said scenes in the commercial were likely to set a bad example for young people, as the commercial shows a person dropping a handbag from the overpass into the traffic below. A person then speeds over a railway crossing to retrieve the bag. In addition to rescheduling the broadcast, the committee said a warning must be added to the commercial.
■ SOCIETY
Kaohsiung to hold parade
For the first time, Kaohsiung City’s New Year celebration will feature a large-scale balloon parade, a firework display over a Ferris wheel and a New Year’s Eve concert, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said yesterday. At a press conference in Taipei, Chen said the parade was scheduled to begin at 2pm on Dec. 27 along Time Avenue (時代大道) with about 1,000 people from some 20 performance groups and cheer-leading squads from the Kaohsiung Organizing Committee of the 2009 World Games marching down the 1km-long road. The parade is expected to attract about 150,000 people, she said. The event will be followed by a New Year’s Eve concert starting at 7pm on Dec. 31, with highlights such as a performance by Van Fan (范逸臣), the lead actor of this year’s hit movie Cape No. 7, she said.
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