■ Education
Academic ties boosted
Representatives from the social science and humanities graduate school under Taiwan's National Chengchi University and the international relations institute under Peking University inked an agreement yesterday to boost two-way academic exchanges. Under the agreement, the two parties will start exchanges of professors and graduate school students with financial assistance from the private sector. The privately run New Hope Cross-Strait Academic Exchanges Association has initially contributed NT$1 million to help promote the cause, Shao said, adding that he hopes to set up periodic point-to-point exchanges and systematic research mechanisms between universities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
■ Agriculture
Dujuan losses top NT$1.3bn
Agricultural losses caused by Typhoon Dujuan had exceeded NT$1.35 billion as of yesterday morning, with fruit crops bearing the brunt of the damage, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said. According to COA Vice Chairman Lee Chien-chuan (李健全), the hardest-hit crops included pears, apples, wax apples (bell fruit), jujubes and bananas. Initial reports show that many fruit farms in the counties of Taitung, Pingtung and Taichung could be eligible for cash relief, while fruit farms in Hualien and Nantou counties could receive low-interest loans, Lee said. Noting that fruit crops are highly substitutable, Lee said he is convinced that domestic fruit prices will not rise sharply since imported fruits remain abundant. Lee said Typhoon Dujuan has not seriously affected the country's major vegetable production areas.
■ China
Convicted spy imprisoned
A Chinese court has imprisoned a man for 15 years for gathering military intelligence for Taiwan, the Beijing Times said yesterday. The People's High Court in the eastern province of Jiangsu had recently rejected an appeal by Ma Peiming, who turns 29 this month, and upheld a 15-year prison term meted out in June, the newspaper said. Ma was arrested in February for "seriously endangering national security" and had admitted gathering military intelligence in cities across China, it said. It said Taiwan intelligence had trained Ma during an overseas trip in October 2000, adding that he had received more than US$20,000 and surveillance equipment from Taiwan between 2000 and last year. It gave no further details.
■ Armed forces
Nation's martyrs honored
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) presided over a ceremony at the Yuanshan Martyrs Shrine in suburban Taipei yesterday in remembrance of the nation's war dead as part of Armed Forces Day celebrations. Chen burned incense, presented a wreath and led various senior officials in bowing three times in respect before the altar dedicated to all those who have died for the nation's cause. Senior officials attending the ceremony included Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and Premier Yu Shyi-kun. Also present were legislators, military representatives and families of the war dead. After the ceremony, Chen extended his condolences and regards to the representatives of the dead soldiers' families. Similar rituals were also held at martyr shrines around the country, including one at a hillside military cemetery in Taipei County and one at scenic Chengching Lake in Kaohsiung County.
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
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