■ Religion
Pope gives money to Taiwan
The Holy See has donated US$500,000 to the Catholic Diocese of Kaohsiung to show its concern over the Catholic community's development in Taiwan and to demonstrate Pope John Paul II's friendship toward the people of Taiwan. Well-placed sources in the Vatican said yesterday that the donation has already been given by the Holy See's envoy in Taipei to His Eminence Cardinal Paul Shan (單國璽), who is also bishop of the Diocese of Kaohsiung. The money will be used for charity work in the diocese. Saying that the pope has always been concerned about poor people, refugees and minority groups around the world, the sources said that the donation illustrates that the head of the Holy See has not forgotten such people in Taiwan. Taiwan donated US$500,000 to the Vatican in October in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the pope.
■ Communication
Broadcast act passed
Lawmakers passed the draft Act on Communications and Distribution (通訊傳播基本法) yesterday, providing a legal foundation for the planned National Communications Commission (國家通訊傳播委 員會, NCC) under the Executive Yuan. "The NCC should be established to integrate management of industries of telecom-munications, cable television, satellite and wireless broadcasting in this country. The government surveillance of broadcasting content should be open, while media industries are required to have high standards of self-discipline," the act states. The act also stipulates that the government should provide incentives to develop new media technology while helping to protect the interests of audiences by monitoring the service of media industries.
■ Cross-strait ties
Premier responds to Hu
Speaking at an inauguration ceremony for an anti-human-smuggling task force in Keelung yesterday, Premier Yu Shyi-kun outlined four demands for Beijing at the inauguration campaign yesterday. First, he asked Beijing to carry out direct charter-flights during the Lunar New Year. Second, he wants the Straits Exchange Foundation to be allowed to establish branch offices in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing. Thirdly, he wants to re-establish the cross-strait dialog as soon as possible. Finally, he requested that the nearly 500 DF-11 and DF-12 missiles targeting Taiwan be dismantled immediately. Yu made the comments in response to a speech given by Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) to Taiwanese business leaders in Beijing on Thursday.
■ Cross-strait ties
China urged to seek peace
The government is happy to see that both sides of the Taiwan Strait think highly of Taiwan businessmen, but hopes that China will take substantive action to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait, Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) said yesterday. Chiou was responding to Chinese President Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) remarks the previous day when he received the presidents of Taiwanese businessmen's associations in China and told them he will make every effort to achieve the peaceful unification of China. "Our cross-strait policy remains steady," Chiou said, adding that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has said repeatedly that his advocacy of "one country on each side of Taiwan Strait," and "defensive referendum" are not attempts to change the status quo and have nothing to do with Taiwan independence, nor are they provocations. They are intended to strengthen Taiwan's democracy and maintain peace in the region, Chiou said, which is "our basic stance," although China might have a different interpretation.
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