■ Politics
Parties reach consensus
A consensus among political parties has been forged concerning sections of two bills which will be voted on in the Legislative Yuan on Thursday, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday. Parties have agreed on most parts of the revised Statute Governing the Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) and a revision to the 1995 Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Law (總統副總統選舉罷免法). The Taiwan Solidarity Union, which disagreed with the other parties on several articles of each bill, insisted on voting on them individually rather than as a package.
■ Economics
Premier Yu bullish
Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday that economic growth could reach 4.67 percent for the final quarter of this year. Yu made the forecast at a Legislative Yuan plenary session to dismiss a claim by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Kuo Tien-tsai (郭添財) that the administration is not competent enough to rev up the nation's sluggish economy. Dismissing Kuo's criticism as unfair, Yu cited figures, including growth in exports and foreign exchange reserves, to show that the economy has rebounded from its recent sluggishness and is now steadily improving.
■ National Day
Celebrations toned down
Taiwan has limited its National Day activities in Hong Kong and Macau to indoor celebrations in line with an agreement with the special administrative regions of China, Mainland Affairs Council vice chairman Huang Chieh-cheng (黃介正) said yesterday. About 1,000 people attended an indoor rally held by Taiwan's representative office in Hong Kong on Sunday, with participants singing the national anthem and bowing to the portrait of the founder of the Republic of China (ROC), Sun Yat-sen (孫中山). Some 600 people will attend a similar event in Macau today, Huang said. Also known as Double-Ten Day, since it falls on Oct. 10, National Day had been widely celebrated by Chinese communities in Hong Kong and Macau before they reverted to Chinese rule.
■ Foreign affairs
Powell rumor dismissed
Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) dismissed as "mere speculation" yesterday a media report that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) might have an informal meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Panama early next month. Chen is scheduled to leave for a Latin American tour late this month. His itinerary will include a state visit to Panama to attend a ceremony marking the nation's centennial on Nov. 3. As US President George W. Bush has designated Powell to attend the Panamanian ceremony on his behalf, local news media said Chen might meet with Powell by chance during their stays in Panama.
■ Culture
Free birthday performance
The Overseas Chinese Commission will sponsor a free performance of music and drama at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall at 7pm tomorrow as part of celebrations for Double Ten Day on Friday. The show is primarily designed to treat overseas Chinese who have returned to Taiwan for the 92nd birthday of the Republic of China. Commission Chairwoman Chang Fu-mei (張富美) said the show would be a "combination of modern and traditional arts."
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