Two European parliamentarians were granted one of the nation's highest civilian honors, the Order of the Brilliant Star, by President Chen Shui-bian (
Hans van Baalen, a member of the Netherlands House of Representatives and Gustavo Selva, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Italian Parliament, received the award from the president yesterday at the Presidential Office, a press release said.
In his acceptance speech, van Baalen said it was a great honor to receive the award from Chen's hand, adding: "This is out of the hands of a democratically elected chief representative of the people of Taiwan."
Van Baalen lauded Taiwan's democracy and human rights, saying: "Taiwan should be recognized as a strong democracy in Asia and as a beacon for the people of China, Hong Kong and Macau and for Asia as a whole."
Van Baalen also denounced a common understanding within the European Union (EU) which allows EU member states to deny visas to Taiwan's five highest-ranking officials.
"This is unacceptable because it runs contrary to our own core values," said Van Baalen, who also serves as the vice president of Liberal International, a London-based federation of some 84 liberal political parties from 67 countries.
He urged all democrats in the EU to fight for the lifting of the visa ban.
Chen echoed Van Baalen's view, saying that it was a pity that he, as a democratically elected president, is deprived of the right to travel freely. Chen expressed his wish that Taiwan and the Netherlands work together to realize a related resolution passed by the European Parliament on April 11.
Part of the European Parliament resolution repeatedly calls for EU member states to issue visas to Taiwan's highest-ranking officials for private visits, after EU members' refusal last November to grant a visa to President Chen.
The Dutch parliamentarian also expressed his support for Taiwan's bid to join international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Italian parliamentarian Gustavo Selva, during his meeting with Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday, said the Foreign Affairs Office of the Italian Parliament would endeavor to assist Taiwan with its bid to join international organizations, especially the WHO, another Presidential Office press release said.
Selva received the Order of the Brilliant Star yesterday for his contributions to better Rome-Taipei ties.
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