DEFENSE
Airdrop system to be bought
The Ministry of National Defense is to spend more than NT$193.93 million (US$6.19 million) on precision airdrop systems over the next two years to improve the military’s aerial delivery capability. The deal was awarded to Taipei-based Astro Technology and includes GPS-guided aerial delivery systems for the army, a statement posted on a government Web site said yesterday. The contract is to run until Dec. 12, 2024, and the systems, manufactured by a Canadian firm, would be delivered in Pingtung County, the statement said. The deal involves Sherpa GPS-guided parafoil precision airdrop systems manufactured by MMIST Incorporated, a military source said. The systems can be airdropped from C-130 Hercules, C-17 Globemaster and CH-47 Chinook transport aircraft, Astro Technology’s Web site says. The systems are fully autonomous and GPS-guided, and can be deployed by the armed forces for all kinds of airdrop supply operations, the Web site says.
CRIME
Fugitive in stable condition
An inmate was in a stable condition after he allegedly cut his own throat as police tried to arrest him in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) on Sunday, less than 24 hours after he escaped from a Taichung hospital, police said. Chen Kun-he (陳坤和) was hospitalized with nonlife threatening injuries, police said. Taichung Prison Deputy Warden Yang Hu-cheng (楊戶政) said that Chen, 45, underwent surgery to remove an intramedullary nail from his left foot on Saturday at China Medical University Hospital. The surgery ended at about noon and Chen was placed in a special ward for inmates with shackles on his legs. However, a prison guard checking on the ward at 5:44pm discovered that Chen had escaped. An initial investigation found that he had removed his shackles with a piece of metal wire at about 5:24pm before escaping from the hospital. After fleeing, Chen stole a minivan and drove north, Taichung police said. Chen is serving a jail term for the possession of firearms and illegal drugs. He began serving the 16-year sentence on March 22 last year.
SOCIETY
Legislators agree on changes
Legislators across party lines have agreed to work toward passing amendments to ease constraints on when police officers can use guns, following the killing of two police officers in Tainan last month. Legislators held cross-caucus talks on Friday, during which they agreed to start the new legislative session on Friday. Among the key bills expected to be discussed in the session, draft amendments to the Act Governing the Use of Police Weapons (警械使用條例) have attracted the most public attention. The proposed changes cleared preliminary reviews by the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee and are to be further discussed during cross-caucus negotiations. All of the legislators who attended Friday’s meeting agreed to review and pass the proposals on Saturday. Police officers Tu Ming-cheng and Tsao Jui-chieh (曹瑞傑) were killed while trying to apprehend a suspect in Tainan on Aug. 22. No shots were fired during the officers’ failed attempt to arrest Lin Hsin-wu (林信吾), who allegedly stabbed Tu with a knife before taking his gun and two magazines. Tsao, who arrived at the scene later, did not have a gun. Lin allegedly fired six shots at his vehicle before stabbing him to death.
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