SOCIETY
Kaohsiung births increase
Greater Kaohsiung observed an increase in both marriages and births last year, a year many people considered to be lucky, the city’s Department of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said. According to department’s statistics, 18,732 couples tied the knot in the municipality last year, compared with 15,659 couples in 2010. As for the birthrate, the number of babies born reached 21,411, compared with 19,198 in 2010. As it is the Year of the Dragon, the department said it was expecting high birthrates for this year as well. The Social Affairs Bureau added it would offer financial rewards to couples who have children this year. Parents would be given a birth stipend of NT$6,000 per child and NT$10,000 to couples that have a third child, the bureau said, adding that before infants reach their first birthday, parents are entitled to a monthly subsidy of NT$3,000.
ENVIRONMENT
Trucks to get recorders
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said it is planning to install recorders on hundreds of garbage trucks nationwide as part of government efforts to crack down on environmental violations. Wu Tien-chi (吳天基), head of the Department of Waste Management, said that to reinforce a crackdown on violations, such as dropping cigarette butts or belching exhaust smoke, a total of 960 garbage trucks around Taiwan would be fitted with recorders in the initial stage. Meanwhile, EPA Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) encouraged residents to report environmental violations.
CROSS-STRAIT TIES
Ties to get closer: Zheng
China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Deputy Chairman Zheng Lizhong (鄭立中) predicted yesterday in Greater Tainan that cross-strait engagements would become even closer and wider, with many people from many sectors pitching in. Zheng said it was once “beyond the imagination” that 558 flights could fly directly across the Strait per week. After so many years of efforts, both sides now appreciate that peace and collaboration are the only options to end tensions and standoffs, he said. Zheng, who arrived in Taipei on Saturday, is visiting at the invitation of the National Policy Foundation, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) think tank. His visit, primarily to southern Taiwan, comes less than a month after the Jan. 14 presidential and legislative elections. Prior to visiting Greater Tainan, he was in Greater Kaohsiung and Pingtung County over the weekend. Academics said his visit was mainly aimed at winning more trust from Taiwanese at the grassroots level, particularly those residing in southern Taiwan.
CRIME
Envoy offers condolences
Representative to the Philippines Raymond Wang (王樂生) expressed condolences on Sunday to the family of a Taiwanese woman living in the Southeast Asian country who was murdered there last month. The 29-year-old victim, surnamed Hsu (許), was robbed and shot in Manila’s Chinatown on Jan. 11. Her brother and father were also injured. According to a police investigation, the perpetrator was an active duty policeman. Wang said the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Manila had requested the country’s police to take the suspect into custody as soon as possible. He also urged the local government to install security monitoring systems to improve the city’s safety. The victim’s father, who is involved in the onion trade, has been based in the Philippines for several decades.
JUDICIARY
Chiayi tests ‘observer jury’
The Judicial Yuan held a briefing session in Chiayi City yesterday in preparation for a test run of a proposed “observer jury” system in the southern city. About 120 legal professionals and law experts attended the session, which was held at the Chiayi District Court. The “observer jury” system aims to allow the public to participate in the criminal trial process and enhance judiciary transparency. According to a draft bill released on Jan. 11 by the Judicial Yuan, the “observer jury” would apply to cases that involve offenses carrying a maximum penalty of death or life imprisonment. However, the jury would only express their opinion and would not render a verdict, the draft bill states. The Judicial Yuan hopes the legislature will pass the bill this year, paving the way for its implementation next year. After Chiayi, the Shihlin District Court in Taipei has been selected to test the system.
MILITARY
Open islets: Kinmen
Kinmen County Commissioner Li Wo-shi (李沃士) yesterday again urged the military to conditionally open two islets — Dadan (大膽) and Erdan (二膽) — to the public to help boost tourism in the outlying islands. The two islets have long been military outposts that are off-limits to the public. Dadan covers an area of 0.79km2, while Erdan measures 0.28km2. In response, the Ministry of National Defense said that the Executive Yuan would discuss whether to open Dadan and Erdan to the public and would make the final decision on the matter. Li has called for the opening of the two islets to the general public on the condition that the military’s operations would not be affected.
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