NATIONAL DEFENSE
Chinese poachers targeted
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday launched an expanded operation against illegal fishing by Chinese boats in waters near Penghu, in an effort to protect the rights and safety of Taiwanese fishermen. In addition to coast guard vessels, helicopters were dispatched. At a launch ceremony in Penghu, CGA Minister Wang Chung-yi (汪忠一) said poaching by Chinese boats is a serious problem. So far this year, the coast guard has chased off 530 Chinese fishing boats in waters near Penghu and fined 54 others a total of NT$13.35 million (US$427,000), CGA data shows.
CRIME
Woman detained in slaying
A Taiwanese woman is being investigated in the death of an elderly Taiwanese national in Japan, the Greater Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office said on Monday. The suspect, surnamed Ou (歐), was arrested on Sunday at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as she tried to travel to China, prosecutors said. Ou is suspected of killing a woman surnamed Cheng (鄭) who lived in Ibaraki Prefecture. Cheng was found dead in her home on Dec. 5, prosecutors said. A Chinese man surnamed Zhu (朱) was arrested in Japan on Tuesday last week on suspicion of colluding with Ou. Kaohsiung prosecutors said Ou, who left Japan on the day Cheng’s body was discovered, reportedly said that she and Zhu tied Cheng up and beat her before taking cash from her home and making a ¥250,000 (US$2,120) transaction from Cheng’s bank account. Cheng’s son told police that he discovered that a woman was using his mother’s mobile phone from Taiwan on Monday last week. The woman asked him for NT$150,000 to cover hospital fees, saying that Cheng had died in a car accident, he added.
ENTERTAINMENT
Rules allow ‘Blind Massage’
Moviegoers will get a chance to see Blind Massage (推拿), the biggest winner at this year’s Golden Horse Awards, when it is released next month following a change in the regulations governing the showing of Chinese films. The Chinese-French drama by Chinese director Lou Ye (婁燁) will be released in 11 theaters across the nation on Jan. 23, according to distributor Flash Forward Entertainment. The film won six awards, including best feature film, at the Golden Horse Awards in Taipei last month. It also won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. Blind Massage is set to be one of the first films to benefit from a new regulation passed by the Ministry of Culture this year allowing the screening of Chinese films that have won major awards. At present, only 10 Chinese films per year are permitted to be shown, with the selections made through a random draw. Beginning next year, Chinese films are to be allowed once they have won awards at the Oscars, at the Berlin, Cannes or Venice film festivals, or at the Golden Horse Awards in the best feature film or best director categories.
SCIENCE
Ministry plans new ship
The Ministry of Science and Technology said it plans to build a new 3,000-tonne oceangoing research vessel that would be completed in 2018, replacing a ship that sank off Penghu on Oct. 10. At the same time, the nation intends to buy other ships in an effort to improve its oceanic research capabilities, the ministry said. The 2,700-tonne Ocean Researcher V sank near Penghu in stormy waters. Two researchers died, 24 people were injured and the monetary losses amounted to about NT$1.555 billion (US$49.7 million), the ministry said. In addition, 13 research projects have been affected by the sinking, Acting Minister of Science and Technology Lin Yi-bing (林一平) said.
TRANSPORTATION
Songshan ridership hits 20m
The Taipei MRT’s Songshan Line has transported almost 20 million riders in the one month since its inauguration, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Monday. From Nov. 16 to Sunday, about 19.9 million passengers took the line, which saved them a net NT$108.5 million, since travel was free for a month after the opening, the company said. Ridership on the Bannan Line dropped 16.7 percent to 359,000 passengers per weekday since the opening of the Songshan Line, the company said. There has also a been a decrease in the number of passengers at major transfer stations, it added, citing Taipei Main Station, where passenger volume has dropped by 48,000 to 110,000, and Zhongxiao Fuxing Station, where it has fallen 4,000 to 104,000 over the past month.
TOURISM
‘MasterChef’ unveils tour
The nation has been selected as one of the world’s top culinary destinations to be featured in upcoming MasterChef Travel luxury tour packages. A collaborative venture between US hit cooking show MasterChef and Cox and Kings, a travel company headquartered in Mumbai, India, the luxury tours are marketed as an inspiring collection of culinary holidays designed to immerse clients in the wonders of the world’s greatest food destinations. According to the venture’s Web site, culinary highlights on the Taiwan itinerary include the Din Tai Fung dumpling chain, night market snack foods and in-depth excursions to gain hands-on experience with the making of oolong tea, tofu and wasabi.
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