■ Government
Taitung winner suspended
The Ministry of the Interior officials said yesterday that Taitung Council Speaker Wu Chun-li (吳俊立), who won the Taitung commissioner seat earlier this month, will be banned from his new post because of a corruption conviction. The 23 county commissioners are due to take office today. The Executive Yuan is expected to find a substitute for Wu for the time being. Wu was charged with corruption while serving as a Taitung County councilor in 1999. The Taitung District Court sentenced him to 16 years in prison in 2002, but the following year the Taiwan High Court's Hualien branch reduced that sentence to seven years and eight months in jail. He is currently appealing that sentence. He was also charged with vote-buying before the Dec. 3 elections and released on NT$1 million (US$29,800) bail.
■ Health
Vitamin report denied
Officials from the National Health Insurance Bureau yesterday refuted claims in a Chinese-language newspaper that starting next month, the bureau would no longer cover the cost of vitamins, calcium tablets and other non-prescription dietary supplements. The officials said that although the bureau has plans for a "second wave" of elimination of non-prescription drug coverage, the specifics and the timing have not been confirmed. However, an official, surnamed Liao, did say that vitamins and dietary supplements are being reviewed for possible elimination.
■ Society
Rice bomber breaks fast
Convicted "rice bomber" Yang Ju-men (楊儒門) ended a six-day hunger strike yesterday that he staged to urge the government to resist US pressure at the recent WTO meeting in Hong Kong for more agricultural imports. Social activists who visited Yang yesterday told reporters that "Yang looked good and he insisted that the government should protect local farmers." Yang was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail after being convicted in October of planting more than a dozen explosive devices to highlight the plight of farmers. He is appealing his conviction.
■ Travel
HK charter set for Penghu
The Penghu County Government is planning to launch charter flight services to Hong Kong early next year, a spokesman said yesterday. The county government has been working with the private tourism sector on the first direct charter flight from Makung (馬公) to Hong Kong on Jan. 21, he said. More charter flights will be introduced between the two destinations in the coming months, he said. China Airlines will use a 158-seat passenger jet for the Jan. 21 charter flight. The direct flight will help Penghu travelers save about NT$6,000 by not having to go to Kaohsiung to catch a flight to Hong Kong, the official said.
■ Health
New device introduced
Medical experts yesterday introduced a new gadget to help people with cancer of the large intestine defecate. Dr. Ding Wen-chien (丁文謙) of the Colorectal surgery department of China Medical University Hospital said that when tumors develop in the intestines, it is often very difficult for patients to pass stool. Normally, a colostomy is required, where a waste bag is attached to the surface of the stomach. Ding said the gadget, a spring wire, is inserted through gaps in the tumor, along the intestinal passage, allows patients to pass stool normally.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
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