CRIME
Two principals detained
Two of the seven elementary and junior high-school principals from New Taipei City (新北市) questioned about allegedly accepting bribes from catering firms were detained yesterday. Principal Liu Chuang-jen (劉創任) of Houde Elementary School and principal Tseng Mao-shan (曾茂山) of Touchien Junior High School were held incommunicado on charges of corruption, the Banciao District Prosecutors’ Office announced, as the scandal over school lunch catering escalated. Five other principals, still under investigation, were released on NT$1 million (US$33,333) bail after lengthy interrogations that began on Thursday. Meanwhile, a food company owner, surnamed Yeh (葉), was also held incommunicado on charges of bribing school principals. In two earlier investigations, prosecutors searched 23 elementary schools and seven junior high-schools in the city and interviewed 10 principals, five of whom have been held in detention, the other five being released on bail.
TRAVEL
TECO to directly issue visas
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Los Angeles yesterday began issuing Taiwanese visas directly to overseas Chinese, a move that will shorten visa processing times. Under current regulations, all visa applications from overseas Chinese received at the office have to be mailed back to Taiwan, a process that usually takes between seven and 10 business days, the office’s Immigration Division said. However, starting yesterday, overseas Chinese holding a US Green Card, a working visa or a student visa issued by the US, qualify for the new application services, which will only take between two and three business days. The Taiwan visas will be valid for a maximum 15-day stay within three months.
RETAIL
Women top online shoppers
Office workers aged 30 to 39 and women of all ages are the most frequent online shoppers in Taiwan, according to the results of a survey on e-commerce released yesterday. The Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute, which conducted the survey, found that consumers in the 30 to 39 age bracket accounted for 62.3 percent of the average online store’s customer mix, with men and women divided evenly. The 20 to 29 age group accounted for 27 percent of customers, with women making up 60 percent to 80 percent. More than 80 percent of customers in the 40 to 49 age group were women. The top three categories of items sold online were clothing and accessories, beauty and skincare products, and speciality food items. The survey, sponsored by the Department of Commerce, was conducted between June and last month and received responses from 28,499 online retailers.
EMPLOYMENT
Realtors work most hours
The real-estate industry was found to have the longest working hours in Taiwan, followed by support services and arts, entertainment and recreation services, according to a study released by the Council of Labor Affairs yesterday. Average work hours per week for the three industries were 46.9 hours, 45.9 hours and 45.3 hours respectively, compared with 43 hours for other workers polled, the council’s Institute of Occupational Safety and Health said. The survey, which was conducted in September last year, polled 24,427 effective samples, including 5,528 employers. Employers should be concerned about employees working overtime and pay them for extra hours as regulated by the law, the institute 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
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