POLITICS
Chen’s detention extended
The Taiwan High Court ruled yesterday to extend former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) detention for two more months to Dec. 18 on the grounds that he might flee if he were to be released. Chen has been held since Dec. 30, 2008. He and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), were found guilty of corruption, forgery and money-laundering in September last year.
WEATHER
CWB downplays cold fears
Taiwan is likely to experience typical winter temperatures this year and will not be directly affected by a cooling climate system in Europe, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday. While Polish climatologists have predicted that Europe will face “its coldest winter in 1,000 years,” sparking wide debate over the past few days, the bureau said the chances of Taiwan being affected are slim. However, CWB Forecast Center director Cheng Ming-dean (鄭明典) said Taiwan needs to keep an eye on whether Europe does take a hit of severe cold this winter, as it could lead to sudden rises in oil prices.
TRAVEL
Airport to launch foodfest
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport will launch a food festival today as part of efforts to change its reputation for poor food. The two-week event features what organizers called “a showdown” of delicacies, with gourmets and celebrities invited to rate food served at the airport. Today and tomorrow travelers will be able to try free samples from participating vendors in Terminal 1. The fair is the latest effort to boost the airport’s image. In a poll conducted in August, foreign travelers gave the airport low ratings for facilities, food prices and staff conduct.
TRAVEL
MOFA issues travel alert
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday issued a low-level travel alert for Sweden over concerns of possible terrorist attacks. The gray alert — the lowest on the ministry’s four-color system — came after the Swedish Security Service changed its five-scale terrorist attack threat from the second grade of “low threat” to the third level of “elevated threat.” A gray level alert advises tourists to “travel with caution.” Meanwhile, the ministry added that the travel alert for Thailand remained at the second-lowest yellow level, which advises tourists to travel with caution and reconsider their itinerary. According to the ministry, four Thai provinces — Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Samut Prakan and Prathum Thani — were still in a state of emergency and the possibility of an extremist attack in the Southeast Asian country remains high.
EMPLOYMENT
Monkey-chasing job offered
Chasing monkeys has been added to the jobs on offer under a government--sponsored program to boost employment, according to an official from the Kaohsiung City Government. The city government is offering NT$17,600 (US$550) a month for staff charged with keeping the primates from developing disturbing behavioral patterns, said the official at the city’s labor bureau. “The ‘monkey chasers’ will tell people not to feed wild monkeys, as that will lead them to develop abnormal behavior such as grabbing people’s food or invading homes,” he said. Many people have inquired about the positions, he said, adding that only those aged 45 years or older will be eligible under the scheme.
AVIATION
CAA mulls return of FAT
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) on Wednesday requested that Far Eastern Air Transport (FAT) provide more details about its plans to fund its operation before it is allowed to resume services. The CAA suspended all FAT flight services in 2008 after the airline experienced serious financial difficulties. On May 30, the Taipei District Court approved FAT’s application to restructure its finances. As its air operator certificate expires on Nov. 30, FAT has applied to resume full operations before the end of next month, with reports that it could do so as early as Nov. 15. Sources at the CAA said more information was needed on whether FAT would be able to continue operations if it were at its absolute worst financially, a question the air operator had yet to fully answer
CONSTRUCTION
Workers to receive payout
The six Indonesian laborers who died in the Freeway No. 6 construction accident last week could each receive about NT$3 million (US$96,700), the National Expressway Engineering Bureau said yesterday. Bureau’s Director-General Tseng Da-jen (曾大仁) said the contractor — Kuo Teng Constructions Co (國登營造) — had purchased insurance for any accident at the construction site. While the insurance company still needs time to calculate all the relevant costs, Tseng said rough estimates indicate that each laborer could receive up to NT$3 million. Earlier, local media reported that the six foreign laborers were illegal workers and not eligible for compensation. The Taiwanese worker Chuang Yung-ho (莊永和), who also died in an accident last week, is also covered by the insurance. Tseng said the bureau has suspended all work on the site as instructed by the Council of Labor Affairs, adding that it is cooperating with the Nantou Prosecutors’ Office to determine the cause of the accident.
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