■ Tourism
English hotline launched
A new 24-hour tourism hotline was launched this month as part of the Bureau of Tourism's plans to boost tourism information throughout the country. The "call center" will provide travel information in Mandarin, Japanese and English and can be reached toll-free at 0800-011-765. In addition, the bureau is planning to expand its network of buses which transports travelers from hotels to popular tourism destinations. Current destinations include Sun Moon Lake in Nantou County, Chinkuashih in Taipei County and Kenting National Park. The bureau plans to add at least four new routes.
■ Health
No tests for inauguration
The Center for Disease Control yesterday announced that temperature readings would not be required for those participating in the presidential inauguration on May 20. Due to a recent resurgence of SARS in Beijing, authorities had originally planned to make temperature readings at
the inauguration mandatory. Center for Disease Control director Su Ih-jen (蘇益仁) said that, in terms of preventing any local SARS outbreak, last week was a crucial time and that the disease had since been brought under control. As a result, health authorities have decided not to take temperature readings at the inauguration, but have warned that people returning to Taiwan from Beijing or Anhui should refrain from participating in the ceremony. The presidential inauguration is expected to host about 200,000 guests.
■ Health
Enterovirus cases down
Seven cases of acute enterovirus infections have been reported so far this year, all of them in central and southern Taiwan, an official of the Department of Health said yesterday. Wu Ping-huei (吳炳輝), from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), said that the first six cases occurred in central Taiwan, while the latest one was in Tainan County at the end of last month -- a four-year-old boy who suffered from fever, ulcers at the corners of his mouth, and vomiting and rashes. He has since recovered. Wu said that the number of cases is low compared with the same period last year, which saw 41 serious enterovirus cases. Tseng Shu-hui, director of the CDC's branch in southern Taiwan, said that officials still don't know why serious cases of enterovirus are occuring in the center of the country.
■ Diplomacy
`Chinese Taipei' is no more
"Chinese Taipei" is not a feasible title for Taiwan when applying to join international organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦) said yesterday. Shih was responding to media reports that "Chinese Taipei" was one of five options when applying for seats in international organizations. "The report is not right," Shih said, adding that "Chinese Taipei" had not been included in a shortlist of preferred options. Because of Beijing's diplomatic embargo, Taiwan has been unable
to join major international organizations or activities under its official title, the Republic of China (ROC). With a view to protecting national dignity while striving to expand its presence in the international arena, Shih said the foreign ministry had come up with five titles to suit the requirements of different organizations at different times. The five preferred options were, in order of preference, "Republic of China," "Taiwan," "Taiwan, ROC," "ROC (Taiwan)" and "Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (TPKM)," Shih 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
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
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