■ Diplomacy
Ministry planning direct links
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications will soon begin to work on the technical details pertaining to direct links based on the timetable that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) announced last year, a ministry official said yesterday. Lin Chih-ming (林志明), director of the Department of Navigation and Aviation, said that with Chen's victory, the issue of direct transportation links has now become one of the focuses of attention. Lin said the ministry will soon launch technical planning on Chen's "three-stage" timetable -- namely preparation, negotiation and implementation -- on the opening of direct shipping and air links across the Taiwan Strait. According to Chen's timetable, Lin said, negotiations are to start shortly, paving the way for the implementation of direct transport links by the end of the year. Lin said that the ministry completed an overall assessment on Taiwan's opening of direct transport links based on the "three-stage" timetable and submitted it to the Mainland Affairs Council for the council's reference last year.
■ Diplomacy
Dialogue with China urged
New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff said yesterday Taiwan's election offered an opportunity to restore momentum to dialogue with China and urged the Taiwanese government to avoid unnecessary confrontation. Goff said the principal challenge facing the new government was to re-engage with Beijing in a constructive way. Noting that cross-strait stability was central to regional security, he said: "I hope that Taiwan will not do anything that could jeopardize the measured way in which relations between Taipei and Beijing have progressed in recent years. The true exercise of democracy requires leaders to provide leadership based on rational analysis of long-term interests. There is too much at stake, not only for Taiwan, for any acts of unnecessary confrontation." Goff welcomed the high turnout for the election, and the generally peaceful way in which it was conducted. Meanwhile, Japan said yesterday it would stick to its "one China" policy whatever the outcome of the election. "Whatever happens, Japan's position will not change," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference.
■ Diplomacy
Another try at WHO
This year Taiwan will seek to enter the World Health Organization (WHO) using "pragmatism and dignity," a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday. Tung Kuo-yu (董國猷), director- general of the foreign ministry's Department of International Organizations, made the remarks while attending a seminar on Taiwan's WHO bid sponsored by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission. Tung said the ministry has actively promoted the participation of Taiwan in the WHO since 1997, and he believes that all political parties and all people agree that Taiwan should be included in the organization. Tung said the ministry will highlight Taiwan's sovereignty while taking into consideration international realities in the hope that Taiwan can achieve the best possible results from limited resources.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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
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