■ Accident
Search for sailors abandoned
New Zealand maritime authorities said yesterday they have given up attempts to find 18 sailors believed drowned after their Taiwanese fishing boat sank in a storm earlier this month. Trying to find the 32m Lih Fa and its crew would be like "looking for a needle in a haystack," said Maritime Safety Authority compliance deputy director Bruce Maroc. "There is no active search being conducted at the moment," he said. An extensive air and sea search was launched for the vessel after its captain sent a distress message shortly after midnight on Thursday last week during the storm 800km west of New Zealand.
■ WHO
US paper supports bid
The Dallas Morning News said in an editorial on Wednesday that China's President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) should take bold steps to ensure that his government is accountable to its 1.2 billion people and drop China's obstruction of Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Organization as an observer. In the editorial, titled "SARS: Secrecy can kill: China's actions now will shape its future," the newspaper said China had grossly mishandled the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome. The editorial said, however, that good may come from China's mistake, if the country becomes less secretive. In that regard, one cannot help but think of the Soviet Union, which in 1986 suppressed news of a massive radiation leak at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The resulting anger helped to further then president Mikhail Gorbachev's campaign of glasnost, or openness.
■ Business
Chen urges firms to stay
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) encouraged domestic enterprises yesterday to keep their operations in the country while they prepare to enter the global market. Addressing a gathering to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Kinpo Electronics Group in Taipei, Chen said that his administration would lift all possible barriers to domestic investment and increase construction of public facilities to entice more enterprises to stay in the country. Chen said that many companies are already setting up shop in Taiwan. As an example, the president pointed to the Dinpu Hi-Tech Industrial Park (頂埔科技園區) in Tucheng, which began receiving applications last week. He said that the park could not accommodate all the applications it had already received. The president also praised the Kinpo Group as a model for Taiwan enterprises in terms of its operating style. The conglomerate established its first company in 1973 to produce calculators with only 50 employees, he said, adding that it has now more than 40 enterprises, 24 factories and more than 20,000 employees.
■ Typhoon
Kujira warning lifted
The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) lifted a land warning yesterday for typhoon Kujira, which was downgraded to a tropical storm as its strength diminished. CWB weathermen said that as of 5:30 pm, Kujira was located 230km east of Hualien and was moving in a north-northeasterly direction at a speed of 20kmph toward Okinawa. The weathermen said that land areas in northeastern Taiwan, eastern Taiwan and southeastern Taiwan are all out of the influence of Kujira and that they expected to lift the sea warning later in the evening. Kujira, one of the few typhoons in many years to approach Taiwan as early as April, has caused no damage and has not brought any heavy rainfall to eastern Taiwan.
■ The media
Chen wants free press
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) reiterated his commitment to freedom of the press on his Web site yesterday. Noting that freedom and democracy are basic factors of Taiwan's survival, Chen said he has never wavered in his commitment to defend "100 percent" freedom for all sectors of the media regardless whether or not he is president. However, Chen said, freedom doesn't mean people can do whatever they wish; there are limitations, such as not interfering with the freedom of others. Taiwan's democracy still has room for growth and so does its media, he said, adding that the media should grow through its own desire to improve itself and serve the needs of society. Some private groups have tried to coax the media to cover events better, the president said, but added that this task is not one for the government.
■ Foreign affairs
Aid ready for Iraq
Humanitarian assistance to Iraq is ready for shipment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced yesterday. Lu Ching-long (呂慶隆), vice chairman of MOFA's NGO Affairs Committee, made the remarks when he was reporting on the progress of a donation campaign for war-ravaged Iraq. Lu noted that domestic groups have solicited so far 3,445 cartons of mineral water, 7,300 packages of salt and sugar, 650 cartons of milk powder and food supplements, 10,112 blankets, one ambulance and 200 tents and sleeping bags, as well as NT$30.70 million in cash. Lu said that the MOFA is cooperating with Mercy Corps of the US in providing humanitarian assistance. The MOFA is renting a warehouse in Taoyuan to store all the collected materials.
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