■ POLITICS
Hwang to be promoted
Deputy Minister of the Examination Yuan Hwang Yea-baang (黃雅榜) will be promoted as secretary general to fill the vacancy left by Lin Shui-ji (林水吉), government sources said yesterday. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is expected to approve Hwang’s promotion in a few days as Lin’s resignation takes effect on Thursday, sources said. Hwang was selected as Lin’s successor because of his good educational background and is a veteran official who has come up through the ranks of the Examination Yuan, the sources said. Hwang, 61, is likely to face immediate pressure over the issue of an amendment to the Civil Service Performance Evaluation Act proposed by the Examination Yuan. The proposed amendment states that at least 3 percent of the staff at government agencies should be given a “C” grade in year-end evaluations, and employees receiving a “C” grade three times should be laid off or forced into early retirement.
■ POLITICS
Hau Pei-tsun hospitalized
Former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) was hospitalized because of fever and a lack of appetite, his son, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), said yesterday. Hau Lung-bin said in a text message to media that his 91-year-old father was hospitalized at the suggestion of doctor because of fever and lack of appetite possibly caused by a viral infection. His father was in a stable condition, the mayor said, adding that he had been visiting his father at hospital every night after work. The Chinese-language United Evening News reported yesterday that Hau Pei-tsun had been hospitalized for bronchitis at the Tri-Service General Hospital.
■ TOURISM
Taiwan displays hospitality
The luxury cruiser Azamara Quest arrived yesterday in Keelung, with 378 homosexuals on board. Keelung Harbor Administration officials said it was the first time that such a large group of homosexuals visited the port. Upon arrival, the passengers were given special maps and guides about bars, nightclubs and restaurants in Taiwan for homosexuals. This was aimed at allowing the visitors to experience Taiwan’s diversity and tolerance, said Chou Yi-hua (周億華), director of the Tourist Service Center of the harbor administration. Several members of the group said they had not always been treated with tolerance elsewhere on their trip, Chou said. The group flew from the US to Shanghai, where the cruise began, and will travel to other cities in Asia. Chou said Taiwan’s image and tourism industry would benefit from its tolerance. The group is scheduled to visit the National Palace Museum, National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, and Taipei 101 before departing from Keelung at 4pm today for Hong Kong.
■ TOURISM
Wu supports reconstruction
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) vowed yesterday to renovate the provincial highway leading to Alishan (阿里山) to help boost local businesses. During a ground-breaking ceremony for housing for the victims of the flood that devastated Fanlu Township (番路鄉), Chiayi County, last year, Wu promised to widen Provincial Highway No. 18, resume the operation of the Alishan Railway, and renovate local shops in a bid to attract Chinese, Japanese, European and American tourists. Wu said the government would help areas hit by the flood with reconstruction in an effort to boost local businesses.
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