MILITARY
Colonel guilty of spying
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a guilty verdict against former air force colonel Hao Chih-hsiung (郝志雄) and maintained the High Court’s sentence of a 20-year prison term for leaking classified military information to China. The High Court convicted Hao in April last year on charges of selling information about Taiwan’s E-2K all-weather airborne warning and control system to Chinese intelligence agencies via businessman Wan Tsung-lin (萬宗琳). The ruling is final. Wan, a karaoke club owner, was also found guilty last year of complicity and sentenced to 14-and-a-half years in prison. Their actions were uncovered during the investigation in 2013 of another case of alleged espionage, which led prosecutors to a money trail that involved Wan and Hao, who was serving in the 439 Combined Wing at the Pingtung Air Base at the time. The two men were arrested in March last year on charges of violating the National Security Act (國家安全法) and leaking classified military information.
EDUCATION
German internships open
Students interested in working for German companies with operations in Taiwan after they graduate can apply to participate in an internship program, organizers said yesterday. The German Academic Exchange Service and the German Trade Office Taipei are launching the Taiwan Internship Initiative for a second consecutive year, providing more than 20 internships at 10 German companies in Taiwan. Participating companies include Audi, EJOT Baubefestigungen, Freudenberg, Otto Software Partner, Mercedes-Benz, Siemens Taiwan, Unipoint Electric, VTLG Asia, Wurth and WritePath. Taiwanese students interested in these positions can apply directly to the companies involved. Detailed information on the positions offered is available at www.daad.org.tw/zh/.
TRANSPORTATION
Taichung rail nears fruition
A 21.7km elevated railway project being built in Taichung is expected to commence services by the end of the year, the Railway Reconstruction Bureau said yesterday. The project will be completed by the end of the month, bureau officials said. The elevated railway, costing about NT$37.24 billion (US$1.18 billion), was designed to replace the current ground-level railway line that runs through downtown. The project is to eliminate 17 railroad crossings, 18 underpasses and three overpasses, freeing the city from the gridlock caused by the existing railway. As of January, Taichung had a population of 2.72 million, making it the nation’s third-most populous city after New Taipei City with 3.97 million and Kaohsiung with 2.78 million, Ministry of the Interior statistics showed.
CRIME
Expert to assist investigation
Kaohsiung authorities have asked renowned forensic scientist Henry Lee (李昌鈺) to assist with the investigation of a prison hostage crisis in the city last month that ended with the six hostage-takers apparently committing suicide. Lee said in Taipei on Monday that he was reviewing documents related to the case and is expected to discuss the case with Kaohsiung prosecutors and police tomorrow. The hostage crisis began on Feb. 11 when six inmates in Kaohsiung Prison overtook guards and prison officials and stole rifles and handguns in a breakout attempt. The crisis ended early on the morning of Feb. 12 when the prisoners allegedly committed suicide after police surrounded the compound. The hostages were unharmed.
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