■ Inauguration
Singers awaiting spotlight
Blind singer Hsiao Huang-chi (蕭煌奇) and Puyuma tribeswoman Samingad (紀曉君) will lead the singing of the national anthem at President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) inauguration today. Hsiao, 28, said he is eagerly awaiting his chance to perform at the ceremony. A self-taught performer who has his own band, Hsiao is also a judo expert who has won medals in international competitions. Samingad said she will wear a modified traditional Puyuma dress made by her mother. Both Hsiao and Samingad ridiculed the question of whether they are afraid of being boy-cotted by China for taking part in the ceremony. They said that singing the national anthem in their own country is more worthy than performing for money in China.
■ Inauguration
Weather uncertain
Due to the eastward clouds from southern China, the weather for today's inaugur-ation remains unsteady, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Forecasters said that showers might be seen today in the east of the country and Kinmen County. In the north, heavy rains might be observed in mountainous areas. In Taipei City there is a 70 percent chance of rain. The temperature will range from 25 degrees Celsius to 31 degrees Celsius. In addition, forecasters said Tropical Storm Omais is expected to skim over eastern Taiwan.
■ Inauguration
Foreign leaders arrive
Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso and Gambian President Yahya Jammeh arrived in Taipei yesterday to attend the inauguration, the Presiden-tial Office reported. Also arriving in yesterday was Saint Kitts and Nevis Foreign Minister Timothy Harris, according to Vice Secretary-General of the Presidential Office Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). On Tuesday, the heads of state or top envoys of 16 other countries arrived in Taipei for the inauguration. Among those expected to attend the ceremony are Marshall Islands President Kessai Note, Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte, Salvadoran President Francisco Flores, Nicara-guan President Enrique Bolanos and envoys from Kiribati and the Dominican Republic, Wu said. He said the large number of foreign dignitaries highlights the fact that the international community has praise for the efforts of the people of Taiwan, adding that everyone in the country should be proud of this.
■ Media
Taichung gets new magazine
A new monthly magazine for Taichung was launched yesterday with the aim of building a more solid sense of identity among city residents. Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) presided over the launch of the magazine and said he hoped that Shining Taichung will shine in tune with "the city's images of sunshine, passion and health" and that when people see the magazine, they will imme-diately think of Taichung. Shining Taichung will have an initial circulation of 2,000 and will be available free of charge at city government offices, tourism centers, libraries, train stations and museums. The mayor said the circula-tion will later be increased to 6,000. Hu also told reporters that he wants the city's logo redesigned. It now features the pavilions on the lake in the Taichung City Park. Hu said he wants the new logo based on the concept of "HOT," or "the heart of Taiwan," to reflect the city's geographic position.
■ Earthquake
Epicenter east of Taitung
An earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale rocked the Taitung area yesterday afternoon, according to a report by the Seismology Center of the Central Weather Bureau. According to a weatherman, it was the most powerful quake to hit the country so far this year and was felt as far north as Taipei. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The quake occurred at 3:04pm, with its epicenter located 26km east of Taitung at a depth of 9km, the weatherman said.
■ Politics
Wang will present seal
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) reaffirmed yesterday that he would abide by the law and present the national seal to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) today. Wang made the statement during a TV interview in which the host appeared to believe that Wang would not participate in any inauguration activities. Wang said that the Central Election Committee had announced on March 26 that Chen had been re-elected and that he could not skip all inauguration duties unless the announcement were altered before today. Wang said that since the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) lawsuit has not been settled, Chen's re-election is legal at the moment and he has to abide by the law. It is believed that Wang will present the seal to Chen at the Presidential Office today but will not attend the inauguration itself.
■ Health
Two officials resigning
Two key health officials, Department of Health Deputy Director-General Lee Lung-teng (李龍騰) and the Center for Disease Control Director-General Su Yi-jen (蘇益仁) will step down today. Chang King-Jian (張金堅), superintendent of Taoyuan General Hospital, is expected to replace Lee, while the candidate to replace Su remains uncertain. Su will return to National Health Research Institutes to resume his research work.
■ Health
Elderly prefer normal diet
A lot of elderly people do not rely on nutrition supplements or tonics to achieve longevity, and instead say a normal diet is the key to a long life, a recent survey conducted by the Ministry of the Interior showed. The ministry conducted the survey on 50,169 elderly people aged 89 or above as of June 30 last year. The survey began in Aug. 11 last year. Over 61 percent of the respondents said they don't eat nutritional supplements or tonics, and only a few said they do, with vitamin supplements being the most mentioned supplement.
■ Election
CEC defends its staff
None of the election staffers involved in the March 20 presidential election broke any laws, a senior Central Election Commission official said yesterday. Fielding questions at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan's Judicial Committee, commission Secretary-General Tsai Li-hsueh (蔡麗雪) said that although some unintentional mistakes or acts of negligence had been discovered in the unprecedented full recount of ballots cast in the March election, no evidence of infractions of the existing laws or rules have been found. In cases where an individual election worker was suspected of having violated election rules, Tsai said, judges would have reported the case to prosecutors, who handle investigations.
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