■ Politics
Sisy Chen flies to Korea
Independent legislator and TV personality Sisy Chen (陳文茜) left Taipei for Seoul on Saturday night. Chen, a former spokeswoman for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, and who is one of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) most scathing critics, bought a full-priced air ticket to Seoul at the China Airlines counter at CKS International Airport. Her departure came on the heels of the re-election of President Chen by a slim margin of less than 30,000 votes. Though not a member of the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the sharp-tongued and quick-witted Sisy Chen has been a great boost to the KMT camp by constantly claiming that President Chen's administration is incompetent. Sisy Chen raised many questions about the situation surrounding the shooting of President Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) when they were canvassing in Tainan.
■ Politics
TSU appeals for calm
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Huang Chu-wen (黃主文) appealed for ethnic harmony and a humble government on Saturday in the wake of the presidential election. Hailing President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) re-election success as evidence of Taiwan's democratization, Huang urged Beijing authorities to rethink their saber-rattling toward Taiwan. Chen's re-election represents the fact that the awareness of Taiwan's identity is growing fast among the people in Taiwan and China should rethink its strategy in its dealings with the country, Huang said.
■ Labor
Indonesian ban may end
A ban on imported Indonesian labor that has been in place since 2002 may be lifted, an economic official said yesterday. Taiwan and Indonesia are also expected to sign a memorandum of understanding aimed at increasing wages and benefits for Indonesians already working in Taiwan, said David Lin (林永樂), chief economic and trade representative for Indonesia. "We are getting close to concluding this [agreement] ... hopefully it will be signed by May," Lin told a press briefing. Taiwan stopped recruiting Indonesian workers in August 2002.
■ Foreign affairs
Japan calls for dialogue
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi urged both sides of the Taiwan Strait yesterday to restrain themselves and resolve their differences through dialogue. Local media reported that the minister made the comments ahead of a visit to China planned for early next month. She also said that Japan neither supports Beijing's use of force against Taiwan nor the island's independence.
■ Election
Ministry Web site hacked
Suspected hackers from China attacked a Ministry of Finance Web site after the presidential elections and posted a protest against the victory of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), a ministry official said yesterday. The treasury bureau Web site was closed temporarily, Mark Wei (魏寶生), secretary-general of the ministry, told reporters. "The Web site of the treasury bureau of the Ministry of Finance was attacked by Chinese hackers who put onto it some content related to the election," he said.
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