■ JUSTICE
Wu Shih-tsai found guilty
The Taiwan High Court found Wu Shih-tsai (吳思材), one of two key suspects in the Papua New Guinea diplomatic fraud scandal, guilty yesterday of falsifying bank statements and lying to the police about being threatened by a gunman. Wu and Ching Chi-ju (金紀玖), the other main suspect, were commissioned in August 2006 to act as intermediaries in efforts to forge diplomatic ties with Papua New Guinea. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs agreed to wire US$29.8 million to a bank account in Singapore that the two men had opened. The funds were to be transferred to the Papua New Guinea government once a diplomatic communique was signed. After efforts to forge ties collapsed in December 2006, the ministry asked for the money back but Chin allegedly refused to return the funds. Wu faces 28 months behind bars on forgery and defamation charges. Chin remains a fugitive.
■ JUSTICE
SIP reshuffle imminent
The Supreme Prosecutor’s Office Special Investigation Panel (SIP) is facing a possible reshuffle, with spokesperson Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南) and a few others facing replacement after completing two-year terms. Officials have confirmed that prosecutors Shen Ming-lun (沈明倫), Chu Chao-liang (朱朝亮) and Wu Wen-chung (吳文忠) would be replaced in about two weeks. On Feb. 11 the Control Yuan asked the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office to remove Chu and Wu from all cases involving former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of having violated the Prosecutors Code (檢察官守則) by having “private contact with Chen during the process of the investigation.” Chen Yun-nan said yesterday that he was willing to leave: “I have not performed well in this position and should let someone else take over … I have completed my two years in office.” Speculation is rife that Eric Chen (陳瑞仁), the prosecutor who indicted former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), will return to the SIP in the reshuffle. He did not return phone calls seeking comment yesterday.
■ SPORTS
IOC veteran laid to rest
Henry Hsu (徐亨), a former member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) who passed away last month aged 98, was laid to rest yesterday at a service attended by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), IOC member Wu Ching-kuo (吳經國), Sports Affairs Council Minister Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) and 1968 Olympic bronze medalist Chi Cheng (紀政). Hsu’s coffin was draped with the national flag, the flag of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the IOC flag. Hsu was an IOC member from 1970 to 1988.
■ COMMUNICATIONS
NCC asked to delay Web site
Lawmakers on the Transportation Committee asked the National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday to postpone the launch of a Web site that would allow the public to check cellphone base station locations. KMT Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) said people would feel uncomfortable if they saw a base station near their house, regardless of the lack of evidence that the electromagnetic waves emitted by the stations are harmful. KMT Legislator Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) said that even though the NCC removes 100 licensed base stations a year, he still gets protests from the public about the stations. Meanwhile, KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) asked Chunghwa Telecom to end long-distance domestic fees because it was now cheaper to call China than some cities in Taiwan.
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