■ Politics
PFP says merger possible
The People First Party (PFP) does not exclude the possibility of merging with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) , PFP spokesman Huang Yi-chiao (黃義交) said yesterday. The PFP does not rule out any possibility, so long as any decisions are made with the consent of the PFP members and supporters, Huang said. Huang made the remarks in response to reporters' questions about how the PFP would react to KMT Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) remarks on Sunday that he has long thought that a two-party system, although not ideal, is the best system for Taiwan. Lien also said that when the terms of the KMT chairman and the PFP chairman expire will be an opportune time for the two parties to merge and become one of the two major parties alongside the Democratic Progressive Party.
■ Legislative Yuan
Recess starts Friday
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) announced yesterday that the legislature will recess from Friday until after the March 20 presidential election. Wang made the announcement after an initial agreement reached between the ruling and opposition parties' caucuses in the legislature. Based upon the agreement, an additional floor meeting will be called on Thursday to deliberate 11 priority bills, including the political donations bill, Wang said. He added that the legislature will give top priority to screening a proposal for halving the number of legislative seats and other motions concerning constitutional amendments after the election. He said the Independent Legislators Alliance caucus was reluctant to sign the agreement, so the negotiation procedure has yet to be completed.
■ Pigeon racing
At least 5,000 birds killed
At least 5,000 pigeons were killed when their cages fell of a cargo boat on the way to the start of an illegal race off the coast. About 30,000 birds were due to take part in the third of a seven-leg race with about NT$100 million of illegal bets staked on the result. Gambling is allowed only on the state-run lottery, although the authorities often turn a blind eye to pigeon racing, which is hugely popular. The accident happened as chains holding the bird cages became loose on one of the two boats taking the birds into the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines, newspaper and television reports said. "I have taken part in pigeon races for 20 years but such an accident has never happened before," Tsai Jui-bin (蔡瑞賓), an official of a pigeon association in Chiayi County, was quoted as saying by a local newspaper. The race was cancelled.
■ Diplomacy
Two delegations arrive
A five-member delegation from El Salvador's Legislative Assembly, led by Legislator Efren Arnoldo Bernal Chevez, arrived yesterday for a five-day goodwill visit , according to Ministry of Foreign Affairs official. During their stay, the delegation will call at the Legislative Yuan, the International and Development Fund, the Central Election Commission and the Government Information Office. They will also tour several economic and cultural establishments. Meanwhile, Dr. Jorg-Dietrich Hoppe, chairman of the German Federal Doctors Association and Director of International Affairs Otmar Kloiber arrived in Taipei yesterday for a five-day visit.
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