■ Government
China not keen on links: VP
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said yesterday that China is not keen on setting up direct transport links with Taiwan and that the approach only forms a part of Beijing's psychological war against Taiwan. The government must take into account national security and social stability while assessing the issue, Lu commented while attending a ground-breaking ceremony for a special innovation and development zone located in the compound of a Tainan technological industrial park in southern Taiwan. Lu also encouraged Taiwan businesses to commit to research and development in the face of the challenges that lie ahead. Meanwhile, completion of the special zone's first construction is slated for the end of next year, by which time 60 hi-tech firms will open up shop there.
■ Charity
YWCA to help children
The YWCA Taipei chapter and the World Peace Prayer Society launched a campaign yesterday to help impoverished children in Malawi, calling for the public's assistance for educational development in the southeastern African country. Wang Kuei-jung (王圭容), wife of Foreign Affairs Minister Eugene Chien, is serving as the honorary chairwoman of the activity, in which the public has been asked to donate stationary and clothes for school children in Malawi, which is a diplomatic ally of Taiwan. Stressing that now is the time for Taiwan to give back to the international community for the assistance it has received in the past, Wang said it is more important to give lasting care to people in poorer countries. Malawian Ambassador to Taiwan Eunice Kazembe expressed her appreciation for the enthusiastic response from the Taiwan public and expressed the hope that school children in her country will be able to enjoy the same level of education as children in Taiwan do.
■ Crime
Former publisher detained
The former publisher of a defunct Kinmen newspaper was detained on the offshore island on Friday night on charges of spying for Beijing. The Kinmen High Court agreed to the prosecutor's request to take into custody Peng Chuei-ping (彭垂濱), who was publisher of the private Kinmen Evening News which was closed in September after running into heavy debt. Peng's wife Chen Hsiou-hsia (陳秀霞) who worked as the newspaper's president and general manager was also questioned by the prosecutor but was released on bail Friday night. According to the prosecutor's investigation, the Pengs are suspected of having over the past four or five years used their press credentials to wander freely around the fortified island to take photos and collect military information for Beijing in exchange for money which they put toward their cash-strapped newspaper.
■ Education
King Car to sponsor teachers
The King Car Education Foundation said yesterday that it will pay the travel costs and visa fees of 12 young American volunteers who will come to Taiwan to teach English for six months next January. The teachers will be selected by the Institute in Basic Life Principles, an US Christian organization. Minister of Education Huang Jung-tsun (黃榮村) said earlier this year that he looked forward to hiring more foreign English teachers for primary schools in remote areas, after restrictions on their recruitment and supervision were lifted. 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
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