■ Society
No regrets over Jackson
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Duen-yi (吳敦義) said yesterday that he has no regrets about pre-senting pop star Michael Jackson with a meritorious achievement award back in 1996, when the singer performed in Kaohsiung and Wu was the city's mayor. "We were only honoring his artistic achievements," Wu said in response to Jackson's arrest last week in the US on child-molestation charges. "We weren't honoring him for his morals. We kept the two things separate," Wu said. The award was controversial at the time. Kaohsiung City councilors Huang Chao-hsing and Lin Ti-chuan (林滴涓) burst into the award ceremony, angrily demanding to know what Jackson's qualifications were for receiving the award. According to newspaper reports, Huang kicked over a table in front of Jackson, prompting the singer to ask, "Is that guy all right?" The councilors objected to the award because of allegations Jackson had improper relations with children.
■ Diplomacy
Chien inks pact with allies
Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) has signed a joint communique in Belize with his counterparts from seven Central American countries to strengthen cooperation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The communique was signed on Tuesday at the end of the 11th annual conference of foreign ministers of Taiwan and its Central American allies, ministry officials said. The conference agenda included political and econo-mic development as well as trade, investment, education, tourism, agriculture and fishery technology, disaster relief and infrastructure construction. The participants reached agreement on a number of new cooperative programs during the one-day meeting, the officials said. Chien was quoted as saying at the meeting that Taiwan appreciates its allies' staunch support in the international community.
■ Health
Diseases list expanding
SARS, dysentery, dengue fever and anthrax would be listed as statutory diseases under draft amendments to the Communicable Disease Prevention Law (傳染病防 治法) approved by the Cabinet yesterday. The draft also lists measles, acute hepatitis A and hantavirus as statutory diseases. Media reporting false information about outbreaks of such diseases would be subject to a fine of between NT$10,000 and NT$15,000 if they refuse to correct the erroneous information. Doctors or institutions unauthorized to make public verified medical information about a statutory disease would be subject to a fine of up to NT$450,000. The draft would also empower the govern-ment to establish an ad hoc command center to prevent the further spread of com-municable diseases. Local chiefs and law enforcement officers would be required to report to local authorities about suspected statutory disease cases 24 hours after receiving such information.
■ Conservation
Shark info for fishermen
The government will step up its education of fishermen about shark conservation in order to protect fishery resources and the nation's image, the Fisheries Admin-istration said yesterday. The agency said the government has put scientists aboard some Taiwanese fishing boats since 2001 to observe deep-sea operations and collect information on shark catches. It said it has asked fishermen who catch sharks to use the entire carcass. Official said Taiwan will act in step with international convention and practices.
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