ELECTIONS
By-election announced
A by-election will be held on Saturday, Jan. 26, next year to fill a post in the second electoral district in Greater Taichung left vacant by former Non-Partisan Solidarity Union legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), the Central Election Commission said yesterday. Yen’s status as a lawmaker was revoked last month after a guilty verdict on a corruption charge was finalized by the Supreme Court. The commission said that those interested in running may register as candidates from Dec. 17 through Dec. 21. The commission said it would examine candidates’ qualifications before Jan. 3 and determine the order in which the names of eligible candidates appear on the ballot at a draw before Jan. 8. The list of candidates is to be published on Jan. 15. Ballots will be counted immediately after the polling stations close at 4pm on Jan. 26 and the winner will be officially announced before Feb. 1, it added.
AID
State donates to CARE
The government donated 100,000 euros (US$129,320) to a Paris-based non-profit organization on Thursday in support of an education program for underprivileged children in Central America. The program, promoted by CARE France, is aimed at eliminating child labor and encouraging normal schooling for children in 14 cities in Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. It is set to run for 30 months starting on Nov. 22 next year, with the EU contributing 80 percent of the 1.25 million euros needed for the cause. CARE France vice president Daniel Thierry described the donation as an important step by Taiwan to participate in international humanitarian efforts. Taiwan’s representative to France, Michel Lu (呂慶龍), said this latest cooperation with CARE France has created a very good model for Taiwan to contribute to multilateral efforts.
CRIME
Ex-KMT lawmaker indicted
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Wang Chih-hsiung (王志雄) was indicted by Taipei prosecutors yesterday on suspicion of involvement in an embezzlement scandal. Prosecutors said Wang established Convenient Life Group and formed five sub-companies, and invited the public to invest in the companies, but he allegedly embezzled NT$30 million (US$1 million) from the group between 1997 and 2000. Wang Chih-hsiung, the son of former Chung Hsing Bank president Wang Yu-yun (王玉雲), was a vice chairman of the Chung Hsing Bank. He fled to China in 2007 amid several investigations into allegations of illegal loans made by the bank and embezzlement. He was repatriated last month by the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau agents after being arrested by Chinese authorities in Shanghai.
SOCIETY
Taipei tops quality survey
Taipei ranked first among the nation’s 22 cities and counties in terms of quality of life, according to a survey by Kainan University published yesterday. The survey by the Taoyuan County school said Taipei placed first in six of 11 indices — housing, income, jobs, community, education, environment, governance, health, life satisfaction, safety and work-life balance. Hsinchu City was ranked second, followed by Hsinchu County, Taichung City and New Taipei City (新北市). The survey, the first such assessment made by the university, was based on the “Your Better Life Index” conducted by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
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