■ CRIME
Thief caught at bank
A handbag thief who tried to withdraw cash from his victim’s bank account was caught in the act by the victim’s daughter, who happened to work at the bank branch. Taipei police said the man, surnamed Chang, 55, broke into the house of a retired teacher on Tuesday and stole her purse, which contained some cash, a bank book and her seal. The suspect went to the bank on Wednesday and filled out a withdrawal slip, stamping the victim’s seal, to withdraw all NT$494,900 from the account, police said. When a perplexed bank colleague asked the victim’s daughter why her mother had sent a stranger to withdraw the money, she immediately called the police, who arrested the suspect.
■ SECURITY
Condo may pose risk for Ma
National Security Bureau (NSB) Deputy Director-General Lin Tung-cheng (林東城) yesterday told lawmakers that a new condominium next to the president’s official residence posed a security threat. Lin made the remarks in response to lawmakers’ questions on whether the nearly finished 23-story building next to the presidential residence would expose President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to security risks. Ma relocated from his residence in Muzha (木柵) to the presidential residence on Oct. 26. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Shuai Hua-ming (帥化民) yesterday suggested the bureau relocate Ma’s residence to the Dazhi Military Complex, which is under construction and will house the Ministry of National Defense and Air Force Command Headquarters. Lin responded that it was a good idea, but the bureau would continue to work on improving security around the current presidential residence.
■ TRANSPORT
Rail line safety questioned
Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) assured the public on Wednesday of the safety of the Alishan rail system and promised that his ministry would step up inspections of the service. Mao made the remarks while fielding questions at a legislative committee meeting from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) about the safety of the system. Lee said he was concerned, particularly as the volume of passengers is likely to increase sharply when the month-long cherry blossom festival begins on Sunday. “Although the rail system is now operated by a private company, the ministry should take responsibility as the regulator of the rail system,” Lee said. The exchange came after train drivers, angry over low wages, recently considered resigning en masse. On Tuesday morning, the compressed air line to the brakes on one of the trains ruptured. It has since been repaired and the train is now back in service.
■ IMMIGRATION
Human smugglers busted
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) yesterday announced that its officers in Nantou County recently busted a crime ring that was bringing Chinese women to Taiwan through fraudulent marriages. During an interview with a pair of siblings surnamed Pan (潘) and their Chinese spouses, the immigration officers discovered that they did not seem to know much about their spouses, the NIA said. The brother and sister duo, who worked as vegetable vendors at a local traditional market, even referred to a “manual” provided by the ring on how to pass the interviews, the NIA said. The brother eventually admitted to taking part in fake marriages.
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