■ Media
Readers in China get a break
Readers of Taiwanese newspapers who live in China's Fujian Province will be able to read the dailies just hours after they are published, instead of a day later, after a new paper route is set up later this month. Hundreds of copies of Taiwanese newspapers will be flown to Kinmen before quickly being ferried by boat to the nearby coast of Fujian Province. At present, the newspapers are flown to Hong Kong or Macau and then forwarded to China. This means readers receive their papers a day after they are printed in Taiwan.
■ Iraq
MOFA draws up plans
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has drawn up plans to deal with possible developments in Iraq in the face of the increasing likelihood of an attack by the US and its allies, a ministry official said yesterday. Ministry spokeswoman Katharine Chang (張小月) said that the ministry has established an ad hoc task force to keep close tabs on developments in the Middle East. The task force's operations follow a standardized procedure, which makes the ministry ready to react at any time in tune with any new situation triggered by a possible US-Iraq conflict, she added. The plans include measures for the protection of the nation's interests and personnel overseas, Chang said.
■ Appointments
Officials to be sworn in today
Newly appointed Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) and National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Kang Ning-hsiang (康寧祥) are scheduled to be sworn in today. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will officiate at the swearing-in ceremony, which will take place at the Presidential Office. Chiou replaces Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟), who assumed his new post on Saturday as superintendent of the Ketagalan Institute -- an institute established by Chen to nurture politically adept young men and women for public service. Kang, vice defense minister until last Friday, filled the vacancy left by Chiou. Kang's vacancy, meanwhile, was filled by Lin Chong-pin (林中斌), who was an NSC adviser and a former vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council.
■ Personnel
MAC plans reshuffle
The Mainland Affairs Council is planning a minor reshuffle in the near future aimed at improving relations with the media, Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday. The council is hoping that the personnel changes will show that it is media-friendly, Tsai said. Tsai herself has apparently warmed to the media. She said at the beginning of last year that "it would be better if there were no reporters covering the council." At the beginning of this year, however, Tsai said that "there should be more news to cover from the council in the coming year."
■ WHO
Group pressures Europe
The Taiwan Medical Affairs Alliance in Europe has decided to ask European countries to support the nation's bid to join the WHO, an official said yesterday. Last year, Taiwan's bid to become an observer of the World Health Assembly (WHA) was thwarted because of pressure from China. The 2003 WHA meeting will open in Geneva on May 19 and Taipei is expected to continue its efforts to become an observer, according to the official. In order to solicit more support for this effort, the Taiwan Medical Affairs Alliance convened a council meeting in Germany recently to discuss concrete steps toward this end. 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