POLITICS
Keelung mayor suspended
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Evaluation and Disciplinary Committee yesterday suspended Keelung Mayor Chang Tong-rong (張通榮) for three months over a legal case alleging Chang coerced police into releasing a suspect. Chang was indicted on Monday for allegedly interfering with the police detention of a suspect. He is said to have forced police officers to release a woman who had punched a police officer. Keelung prosecutors charged Chang with illegally freeing a detained person. If found guilty, he could face a prison term of between one and seven years. The committee said through a press release yesterday the allegation involving Chang, a local chief, has severely damaged the KMT’s image and reputation.
WEATHER
Chilly weather on its way
People planning to celebrate the Double Ten National Day outdoors early this morning may feel a chill as seasonal winds are expected to bring cool and wet weather, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The dreary weather will be felt nationwide, with occasional showers and moderate winds most prominent in northern and northeastern Taiwan and in coastal areas, it said. According to forecasters, temperatures will hit ranges of between 20°C to 31°C across the country. Meanwhile, it said Tropical Storm Prapiroon became a typhoon yesterday morning, but chances are low that it will affect Taiwan before the weekend.
TRAVEL
MOFA urges caution
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday advised Taiwanese heading to Europe to be alert to possible scams while abroad, citing recent cases of fraud in the UK and tainted alcohol in the Czech Republic. One of the cases involved a Taiwanese who was conned into buying a debit card from a scammer while traveling in the UK, said Hsu Mien-sheng (徐勉生), director-general of the ministry’s Department of European Affairs. The Taiwanese was later caught and sentenced to jail after being arrested for using the counterfeit card to make payments at stores, Hsu said. Citing the increased numbers of Taiwanese travelers to Europe — after Taiwan was granted visa-free privileges by the EU in late 2010 — Hsu urged Taiwanese to be alert to the existence of fraud schemes when traveling in the region. Hsu also noted the outbreak of fatal alcohol poisonings in the Czech Republic last month. The bootleg liquor, which left 24 people dead, contained high levels of methanol, and Hsu urged travelers to the country to be careful when drinking.
TRAVEL
EVA begins Myanmar route
EVA Airways Corp, the nation’s second-largest carrier, launched direct flights between Taipei and Yangon yesterday, reflecting growing interest in travel to Myanmar. EVA Air is to operate three flights per week between Taipei and Yangon, hoping to capitalize on a potential surge of leisure and business travelers to Myanmar. Greater stability in the country’s economy and society means there should be an increase in flight demand between Taiwan and Myanmar, EVA Air said. The company also expressed optimism that the new route will cater to foreign travelers, predicting that more than 30 percent of its future clients will be North American passengers flying to Myanmar via Taiwan. Rival China Airlines currently operates five flights per week between Taipei and Yangon, but said it will increase the number to seven per week starting on Oct. 28.
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