CRIME
CIB chief in gambling probe
Hsu Jui-shan (許瑞山), chief secretary of the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), was held incommunicado by prosecutors yesterday for his alleged involvement in an illegal gambling business. Also detained in the same case were Cheng Fu-chen (鄭富禎), a section chief with the bureau’s 4th Investigation Brigade and former journalist Wang Pao-hsien (王保憲). The prosecutors’ action came in the wake of a raid on an underground gambling den in New Taipei City (新北市) on Thursday, which resulted in 20 people being taken away for questioning. An investigation by prosecutors found the gambling business mainly targeted senior police officers and businessmen.
AUCTION
Chiang medal fails to sell
A medal purportedly presented to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) failed to sell at auction in Hong Kong yesterday, after the Taiwanese government cast doubt on its authenticity. The “historically important and unique Order of the Blue Sky and White Sun” had an estimated value of HK$300,000 (US$38,700) but failed to attract a single bid, a spokeswoman for Spink London auction house said. “It was unsold. No one raised their hands,” she said, adding the medal did not come with a certificate of authenticity. In Taipei, a defense ministry spokesman said the original medal was buried with the generalissimo, who died in 1975. “Former president Chiang Kai-shek was awarded three medals, including the Blue-Sky-and-White-Sun medal, and ... all three were buried with him at the Dasi mausoleum” in northern Taiwan, the spokesman said.
TRANSPORT
Tourist bus gets stuck
A bus carrying 31 Chinese tourists got stuck in an underpass in Chiayi City, injuring the Taiwanese driver and 23 Chinese tourists, the Tourism Bureau said yesterday. All 23 Chinese travelers, including three who were seriously injured, were taken to four local hospitals for treatment, the bureau said. The bus was carrying 31 tourists from the southeastern Chinese city of Guangzhou, who were on their way to a mountain tour when the accident occurred, according to the bureau.
The bus was operating in a motorcycle lane when its roof smashed into a low clearance bridge. About a third of the bus made it into the underpass before it got stuck. It remains unclear why the driver was operating in the motorcycle lane and the cause of the accident is still being investigated.
DIPLOMACY
Wang received in Nicaragua
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega received Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) on Wednesday and thanked Taiwan for promoting bilateral cooperation. Ortega also promised that his country will continue to support Taiwan’s bid to participate in international organizations. In turn, Wang expressed gratitude for the Nicaraguan government’s long-term support and said Taiwan will continue to promote government cooperation initiatives and collaboration between the two countries’ legislatures. Wang is leading a group of lawmakers on a visit to the US and two of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in Latin America to promote diplomatic relations. After Nicaragua, the delegation was to travel to El Salvador yesterday, where lawmakers are to attend a special meeting of the Forum of Presidents of Legislative Branches in Central America and the Caribbean. Earlier in the week, Wang attended the annual meeting of the US National Speakers Conference in Anchorage, Alaska
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