■ POLITICS
CCW impartiality questioned
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) yesterday questioned the impartiality of a legislative watchdog after he failed to receive a good review because of an extramarital affair. Wu told reporters at the legislature that Citizen Congress Watch’s (CCW) credibility was questionable, as it gave Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) a great review despite Gao being involved in a corruption case. Nevertheless, Wu vowed to be humble, saying he would improve his behavior. Wu failed to make it into the organization’s list of top lawmakers for the fall legislative session even though he did receive a good review from the group in the first and third legislative sessions of the seventh legislature. CCW chairman Ku Chung-hua (顧忠華) told a press conference on Sunday that the watchdog’s evaluators — more than 200 ordinary citizens and civic group representatives — gave Wu a poor review because of the affair. Wu admitted on Nov. 13 to having an affair after he was caught on camera going to a motel in Dazhi (大直), Taipei City, on Nov. 11. CCW gave 10 DPP legislators and 14 KMT lawmakers great reviews, but placed 17 KMT legislators, three DPP legislators and two Non-Partisan Solidarity Union on its watch list.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Reduction target readjusted
The Executive Yuan recently readjusted the nation’s target for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, aiming to reduce emissions to 2005 levels by 2020 — a reduction of 210 million tonnes, or 45 percent, in 10 years, a Cabinet official said on condition of anonymity yesterday. He said the target was twice as high as the target to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 87 million tonnes for the period announced by the Executive Yuan in January. The government has yet to decide whether to register its reduction target with the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as Taiwan is not one of the 36 Annex I countries under the UNFCCC. He said the government vowed to increase energy efficiency by more than 2 percent every year and to reduce energy intensity by 20 percent within the next eight years.
■ SPORTS
Lottery problems reviewed
Sports Affairs Council Minister Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) said yesterday the council would resolve problems surrounding sports lotteries within two months. “The Administrative Procedure Act (行政程序法) dictates that we address the issue within two months after receiving the request,” Tai said, adding that the council received formal notification from Taipei Fubon Bank on Feb. 8. Sports lottery sales would continue in the meanwhile, Tai said. Before the Lunar New Year holiday, Fubon asked to reduce the profits it is required to pay to the government because sales were lower than expected.
■ CULTURE
Bocelli coming to Taipei
Award-winning tenor Andrea Bocelli will perform in a concert at Taipei Arena on May 6, an organizer said yesterday, adding that he would be accompanied by a local orchestra. Management of New Arts head Niu Hsiao-hwa (牛效華) said the choice of orchestra and the repertoire would be announced at the end of the month. The orchestra is also expected to play with Bocelli in a May 4 concert in Hong Kong. “Bocelli was impressed by Taichung during a visit he made in 2008 and is pleased to make his Taipei debut this time around,” Niu 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
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