■CRIME
Ex-official’s home raided
Investigators yesterday searched the homes of former Council for Cultural Affairs minister Chen Chi-nan (陳其南) and a reporter from the Chinese-language The Commons Daily on suspicion of embezzlement. The two are suspected of being involved in the embezzlement of about NT$6 million (US$200,000) in funds earmarked for the promotion of an urban planning and reconstruction program from 2005 to 2006. Initial investigations said the council authorized a public relations company to undertake the project without going through the proper procedure of public bidding that is required of government-funded projects. Prosecutors are also tracking the whereabouts of the NT$6 million in funding. The two were also questioned on whether the project involved any bribe-taking or embezzlement. However, prosecutors declined to elaborate on details of their involvement in the case, citing a gag order that prohibits them from discussing cases under investigation.
■HEALTH
Mentally ill missing
A total of 335 mentally ill Taipei residents who were on a monitoring list cannot be reached by health authorities, posing a potential hazard to public security, the city’s health department said yesterday. Statistics provided by the department showed that there are 16,163 people on the list, including 10 arsonists. Chen Ching-mei (陳青梅), deputy chief of the department’s medical affairs division, said health officials had asked police for contact information on the missing 335, but had been turned down because of privacy concerns. This has made it difficult to monitor the condition of the mentally ill, she said. Chen made the remarks in a news conference held by Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City councilors Hung Chien-yi (洪健益) and Yen Sheng-kuan (顏聖冠) to address a recent incident in which a mentally ill man committed several acts of arson in the city on Nov. 2. The man was one of the listed missing persons.
■HISTORY
POWs remembered
This year’s Remembrance Weekend events will take place today and tomorrow with a banquet and memorial service to commemorate prisoners of war (POW) who lost their lives at the hands of their Japanese captors in Taiwan during World War II. The events, organized by the Taiwan Prisoner of War Camps Memorial Society, will begin with a banquet at the Imperial Hotel tonight. On Sunday morning, a service will be held at the site of the former Kinkaseki POW Camp in Jinguashih (金瓜石), Taipei County. The British Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei has co-organized the events with the society. From August 1942 to September 1945, more than 4,300 Allied POWs were held in 16 camps around Taiwan. Ten percent of them died. Check out www.powtaiwan.org for more information.
■CHARITY
Rummage sale at TAS
Taipei American School’s (TAS) Orphanage Club will hold its annual rummage sale and flea market in the school’s lobby and forecourt today, starting at 10am, rain or shine. The flea market will end at 3pm, but the rummage sale will continue until 5pm. Items include clothing, toys, household items, electronic appliances, furniture and some antiques. There will also be Mexican food, drinks and ice cream for sale. The club will use the proceeds to fund its programs for orphans and needy children in Taiwan and overseas. TAS is located at 800 Zhongshan N Road Sec 6 in Tianmu (天母).
■HEALTH
Vaccinations set for Monday
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reminded the public that A(H1N1) influenza vaccinations for pregnant women, children aged between one and six and patients with severe injuries aged seven and over would become available from Monday. CDC spokesman Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said indications were that 90 percent of parents would take their children to receive the shots. The CDC plans to complete all vaccinations for elementary school children before the beginning of next month, he said.
■CULTURE
TAV to hold open studio
Taipei Artist Village (TAV), an artist community run by the Taipei Culture Foundation, has announced that it will hold a two-day winter open studio event on Dec. 5 and Dec. 6. “Artists from around the world will show you their artworks from their unlimited creativity, the everlasting passion of their hearts, and their hard work during their residency,” the TAV said in a newsletter. The event, titled SuPerArt, will be held at TAV in downtown Taipei and at its sister facility, Grass Mountain Artist Village in suburban Taipei, the newsletter said. Some artists will open their studios to showcase projects and meet visitors, while others will set up workshops, the newsletter said.
■POLITICS
Sheng to replace Huang
The Executive Yuan yesterday confirmed Taipei City Government Research, Development and Evaluation Commission Director-General Emile Sheng (盛治仁) would succeed Huang Pi-twan (黃碧端) as minister of Council of Culture Affairs. Huang tendered her resignation last month. Meanwhile, an Executive Yuan official said on condition of anonymity yesterday that Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) had appointed former Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) as the Cabinet’s minister without portfolio to push for the government’s plan to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China and attract Chinese capital.
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