■ Diplomacy
German lawmakers arriving
Leaders of a German parliamentary group will arrive in Taipei tomorrow, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday. Berlin-Taipei Friends Group chairman Klaus Rose and vice chairman Angelika Kruger-Leissner hope to learn more about Taiwan's political situation in the wake of the presidential election as well as the development of cross-strait relations, ministry officials said. The officials added that the Germans will meet with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) , Control Yuan President Fredrick Chien (錢復), Foreign Affairs Minister Eugene Chien (簡又新), Vice Minister of National Defense Lin Chong-pin (林中斌) and Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Huang Chieh-cheng (黃介正) before leaving on April 9.
■ Defense
US defends radar sale
The US on Thursday defended its planned sale of advanced radar systems to Taipei, saying they were merely to safeguard Taiwan's security. China had said it wanted to seek clarification from Washington over the deal. US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters that Washington had not received any "formal demarche" from Beijing but said that the early warning radars were "inherently defensive" and to enable Taiwan "to detect and react to missile attacks." He said that the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress on Tuesday about the sale of the two long-range radars, reportedly worth nearly US$1.8 billion. "We believe it will improve the overall security and defensive capability of Taiwan and that this sale does not affect the basic military balance in the region and is consistent with the United States law and policies," Ereli said. "We will continue to assist Taiwan in meeting its legitimate self-defense needs in accordance with our obligations" under the Taiwan Relations Act, Ereli said.
■ Education
Exams computerized
Participants in the national examination will now be able to get their results almost immediately after sitting the examination, thanks to the inauguration yesterday of a computerized examination center. Ministry of Examination Vice Minister Huang Ya-pang (黃雅榜), who concurrently serves as the convener of a national examination task force, said that participants in the examination will from now on answer questions on computers. Referring to concerns about anti-fraud measures employed by the computerized system, the Ministry of Examination officials said that they have taken advantage of the experience of other countries in preventing fraud when taking computerized tests for things like drivers' licenses and TOEFL certification.
■ Science
Inter-museum show set
The "Rhythms of Life" exhibition from Britain's Natural History Museum will open at the National Taiwan Museum in September, Taiwanese museum officials announced yesterday at a contract-signing ceremony. The "Rhythms of Life" exhibit is a wide-ranging display of graphic illustrations, rhythmic sound effects, museum specimens and models and magic shows. It is described as an informal and fun way to introduce visitors to the idea of the mysterious clocks that run the natural world and to show how humans interrupt the natural rhythms of nature.
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