CRIME
NTU student indicted
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted National Taiwan University (NTU) student Hsu Che-jung (許哲榮) on charges of vandalism for damaging a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) on the campus of National Chengchi University on Feb. 22. Hsu has admitted guilt. Following the incident, he issued a statement calling for the complete removal of all “symbols of authoritarianism” from university campuses, saying the lingering presence of relics “worshiping a dictator” prevent students from learning the lesson that they must prevent dictatorships from occurring again. While Hsu said his actions were to further transitional justice, prosecutors argue Hsu had damaged public property and therefore they indicted him.
EDUCATION
Student missing in Germany
The search is continuing for a Taiwanese student who went missing during a swim in a river in Germany last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The exchange student, surnamed Tsai (蔡), was reported missing after he went for a swim in the Weser River in Minden on Friday last week, the ministry said in a statement. Local authorities have deployed more than 200 rescuers to locate Tsai, but they have found no sign of him, the statement said. The search started as soon as Tsai was missed, but it was interrupted for half a day because of heavy rain before resuming early on Saturday, the statement said. A German report said that the 18-year-old was part of a 60-member group that was camping on the banks of Weser.
EDUCATION
Indian students found dead
Two Indian exchange students died yesterday after going for an early-morning dip in a pond close to their dormitory at Nanhua University in Chiayi County, police said. The Chiayi County Fire Department received a report at 2:44am and rushed to the scene, but the two students were found to have no heartbeat after being pulled from the pond by police and firefighters. They were officially declared dead after unsuccessful efforts to revive them at Chia-Yi Christian Hospital and Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital. The students had been visited by two fellow Indians from National Formosa University in Yunlin County. The four drank alcohol and chatted in a pavilion next to the pond near Chi-Hsien dormitory into the early hours of the morning. Three of the students decided to take a dip in the pond, but two got into difficulty. The university declined to reveal their names.
CRIME
Wanted cop arrested
A former police officer who went missing during a probe into his alleged involvement in a drug-smuggling case has been detained for questioning, Taitung investigators said on Monday. The officer, identified by his surname, Lee (李), had been head of Taitung Precinct’s Lanyu Substation. The investigation stemmed from a drug bust that took place on May 9, when coast guard officers raided a recreational boat carrying 899kg of amphetamine in waters near Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼). Police said information obtained from the raid then led officers to suspect Lee was involved in the case. Two days after the raid, he was transferred to Taitung Precinct to assume a desk job pending an investigation into his alleged involvement. However, Lee failed to report to the precinct and disappeared without a trace. Police said they managed to track him down hiding in Pingtung County. He has been fired.
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