■Diplomacy
Chen seeks Japan's help
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) expressed hope yesterday to visiting Japanese Association of Medical Sciences President Wataru Mori that Taiwan's friends will help it achieve observer status in the WHO. Mori arrived here Thursday for a week-long visit to attend a seminar on the centennial anniversary of the Formosan Medical Association. Chen also expressed his appreciation for Mori's long-term support for Taiwan's bid to become a WHO observer. The president said that medical care and disease prevention know no borders and that Taiwan's achievements in these fields have won recognition. "Taiwan, as a member of the international community, is keen to contribute to world health," Chen said, adding that he hopes that more friends will support Taiwan's cause. Mori said that although his association is an academic group, it could use its clout in the field to help Taiwan join the WHO.
■ Security
US experts visit legislature
US former deputy assistant secretary of defense Kurt Campbell and former deputy national security adviser James Steinberg visited the Legislative Yuan yesterday to exchange views with lawmakers on Taiwan's defense and cross-strait ties. KMT Legislator Sun Guo-hua (孫國華) told the visitors that supporters of both the ruling and opposition camps "all love Taiwan," although they might remain sharply divided over the development of relations between Taiwan and China. According to Sun, the current state of ties between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are unique, because Taiwan and China are politically and militarily hostile toward each other but are interdependent in economic terms. DPP Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) asked the two US security experts whether US arms sales to Taiwan that are now being made are adequate to protect the country, to which Campbell replied only that Taiwan should defend itself on its own.
■ Health care
Nurse cashes in on flowers
An Ilan County nurse yesterday raised cash for hospital renovations by selling 1001 pink roses given to her by a love-lorn former boyfriend. Chen Ying-ying (陳盈瑛), chief nurse at St. Mary's Hospital in Luotang, was given the unexpected gift a few days ago by Wu Fu-sheng (吳福生) in a bid to win back her affections. Wu and Chen had originally met six years ago when Wu was receiving treatment for a foot injury but the couple separated shortly after Valentine's Day. Despite the present, Chen said there was no hope for Wu as she already has a fiancee. Patients, visitors, hospital staff and even Wu himself paid NT$100 a piece for the flowers with all proceeds going toward the reconstruction of the hospital.
■ Fishing
Boat survives collision
A fishing boat registered in southern Taiwan returned safely yesterday to Tungkang, Pingtung County, after being hit by a large oil tanker off the Philippines. The Kinming was operating in the vicinity of Luzon Island on Nov. 3 when it was hit by the tanker and began taking on water. Skipper Wang Shui-dao (王水道) said. The hole was about the size of his palm and that in addition to pumping out the water, he had to jettison his catch, estimated to be worth NT$300,000 (US$8,571), to keep the ship afloat. The vessel was escorted by rescue boats of the Coast Guard Administration back to Tungkang yesterday, where repair work began immediately.
Agencies
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
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
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