■ Diplomacy
Japanese call for relations
A group of pro-Taiwan Japanese lawmakers from the Democratic Party (DP) said yesterday that they will promote bilateral exchanges with Taiwan. The DP Diet members' Alliance for Japan-Taiwan Friendship said in a resolution that it will be dedicated to promoting friendship with Taiwan, and will organize a group to visit the nation soon and strengthen exchanges. The group, which is comprised of 50 lawmakers from the lower house and 17 from the upper house, passed the resolution at its annual conference during which the participants also voted for Motohisa Ikeda, a lawmaker from the lower house, to serve as the new president. Ko Se-kai (許世凱), Taiwan's representative to Japan, and deputy represent-ative Chen Hung-chi (陳鴻基) also addressed the meeting saying that they conveyed the condolences of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Premier Yu Shyi-kun on the earth-quakes recently in Niigata Prefecture.
■ Travel
Taichung-Japan flights set
Mandarin Airlines, in coop-eration with Chingchuankang (CCK) International Airport in Taichung County, will provide two charter flights to Shikoku, Japan next month, a government official said yesterday. According to the spokesman for the central coordination service center under the Executive Yuan, the charter flights to Japan are a follow up to the enthusiastic response to the Seoul service by Mandarin Airlines launched by the airport this month. The two charter flights for Shikoku are scheduled for for Nov. 13 and Nov. 20. The Seoul flights marked the start of international air travel service for the airport, which opened in early March.
■ Zoology
Taipei hosts breeding meet
The Taipei Zoo is hosting the 2004 joint annual conference of the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG) and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), running from yesterday through Thursday, said a spokesman for the zoo. More than 200 zoo presidents and animal conservationists from over 40 countries took part in the opening yesterday, a prominent event that coincided with an ongoing art festival being held through January next year, including exhibitions of wild animal posters and worldwide zoo presentations, in Taipei Mass Rapid Transit system galleries, the spokesman said. According to the zoo official, the CBSG, composed of global conservationists and experts dedicated to biodiversity, is affiliated to the World Conservation Union ICUN's Species Survival Commission.
■ Cross-strait Ties
MAC urges flight talks
The Mainland Affairs Council urged China yesterday to authorize appropriate person or persons to negotiate with Taiwan for the opening of direct charter flights across the Taiwan Strait during the Lunar New Year holiday. Council Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) made the call during a regular news conference. Chiu said the government has demon-strated goodwill and flexibility toward the proposal for carriers from both sides of the Taiwan Strait to operate direct non-stop charter flights during the Feb. 6 to Feb. 13 holiday. "We are hopeful that neither side would set any political prerequisite for negotiations about such holiday charter flight services for the convenience of Taiwanese businesspeople operating in China intending to return home for family reunions," Chiu said, adding that the council would name a proper person or persons to discuss relevant technical details with Taiwan as early as possible.
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