TRANSPORTATION
Derailed train blocks tracks
A Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) train yesterday derailed between Taipei Railway and Songshan stations, affecting 19,470 passengers travelling on the city’s main railway axis. The incident occurred at 3:40am when a defective EMU600 train derailed while it was towed from Songshan Station. The train was returned to the tracks and deemed operational at about 5am, but derailed again at 5:38am, forcing passenger trains to use the route’s remaining tracks during rush hour. The situation was cleared at 10:47am, but caused a combined delay of 2,063 minutes, the TRA said.
LAW
Pets are living beings: court
The New Taipei District Court on Feb. 26 ruled that pets are to be considered living beings, not items, awarding NT$170,000 to a man whose dog died after being attacked by another dog. The court said that a pit bull owned by a man surnamed Lee (李) in October 2019 mauled a Maltese dog owned by a man surnamed Sheng (沈) to death in the city’s Linkou Community Sports Park. Although both dogs were not on leashes or were muzzled, Lee should have taken precautions that his dog does not attack others, as it is of a breed known for aggression, Judge Yang Ya-ping (楊雅萍) said, adding that the smaller dog did not provoke it. Many people consider their pets companions and family members, instead of objects they own, she said. Lee must pay the plaintiff NT$100,000 for psychological pain and suffering, as well as NT$70,000 for injuries Sheng sustained in the incident, she said.
CRIME
Alleged baby killers caught
Singaporean police late last month arrested two people over their alleged involvement in the death of a newborn in Taiwan two years ago, the Singapore Police Force said. The couple, both 25, were arrested for their suspected role in the death of a baby found in a garbage truck in New Taipei City on Feb. 26, 2019, it said, adding that Taiwanese authorities requested they investigate the case. Local media at the time reported that the body was found in a black bag by a worker sorting trash from Taipei and New Taipei City. The baby appeared to have been disposed soon after its birth, the reports said, citing police. Taiwanese prosecutors and police suspected the Singaporean couple, who stayed in Taipei from Feb. 19 to 26, 2019, to be the baby’s parents, the authorities said. Bloodstains that matched the baby’s DNA and other evidence in their hotel room suggested their involvement. The analysis also found that the baby had been alive at birth and had not died of natural causes. Prosecutors in February issued an arrest warrant for the couple.
HEALTH
Rise in prostatitis: doctor
A Tainan-based doctor on Tuesday warned that workplace stress could lead to sexual dysfunction, referring to a surge in cases of chronic prostatitis among tech workers at the Southern Taiwan Science Park. The burgeoning technology sector is indirectly causing a rise in certain occupational health hazards, said Hsieh Kun-lin (謝昆霖), a urologist at the Chimei Medical Center, adding that an increased number of people are seeking treatment at the center for health complaints associated with pancreatitis. They experience reduced fitness, irritability and fatigue, leading to a vicious cycle of health decline, he said. Pancreatitis can lead to frequent, difficult or painful urination, cloudy urine, and erectile dysfunction, he said.
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