HEALTH
New organ network formed
National Taiwan University Hospital and Tri-Service General Hospital established a network for organ procurement and transplantation yesterday that will help reduce the waiting time for transplants. It is the second such network founded in recent weeks, following one set up by Taipei Veterans General Hospital, the Linkou branch of Chang Gung Medical Foundation and the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital. More than 7,000 people are awaiting organ transplants in Taiwan, while fewer than 200 people have donated their organs, the hospitals said. According to government regulations, people listed with the same procurement organization as a donor will be given priority to receive matched organs.
CRIME
Officials, contractors held
Two government officials and three contractors were detained yesterday by the New Taipei City District Court for their alleged involvement in a highway construction scandal. Kao Chien-chung (郭見忠) and Yao Cheng (游成), who worked for the New Taipei City branch of the Ministry of the Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency, and three contractors working for BES Engineering Corp were detained, while six suspects were released on bail. The prosecutors said that BES won part of bids in 2008 for constructing a highway system around New Taipei City and construction was supposed to be completed in April last year, but contractors working for BES seriously delayed the construction processes. Prosecutors said the agency officials under investigations admitted they were treated to drinks in hostess bars and visits to prostitutes several times by the contractors, but denied it was in exchange for allowing contractors to delay their work.
ENVIRONMENT
Wetlands protection urged
The government is promoting a draft bill to protect and conserve wetlands to raise public awareness of the issue, Minister of the Interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) said yesterday. Lee said he hoped the public would recognize the importance of wetland conservation and for wetlands to play a greater role in recreation activities. He made the remarks at a Construction and Planning Agency press conference held to mark World Wetlands Day. Feb. 2 marks the 1971 adoption of a Wetlands Convention in Ramsar, Iran. In November last year, the Cabinet approved a draft wetland bill proposed by the Ministry of the Interior and forwarded it to the legislature for approval.
SOCIETY
Fast to focus on famine
More than 55,000 people will fast for 30 hours this weekend to raise awareness about hunger, World Vision Taiwan said. The annual “Famine Hero Rally,” now in its 24th year, will be held today in Greater Kaohsiung, World Vision said in a statement. Participants will gain an insight into the plight of people around the world who suffer as result of hunger, war, natural disasters and disease, it said. Those who join the campaign will also have an opportunity to learn how their efforts in Taiwan transform the lives of people in need globally, it said. Several celebrities are scheduled to appear at the event to encourage the participants. Rock star Wu Bai (伍佰), the 24th 30 Hour Famine ambassador, visited Lesotho early last month and will talk about his trip, World Vision said. Wang Lee-hom (王力宏), Harlem Yu (庾澄慶) and Claire Kuo (郭靜) will be among the performers at a concert which begins at 3:30pm tomorrow.
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