■ Society
Abuse reports rising
A total of 53,054 domestic violence cases were reported last year, double the level in 2000, the National Police Agency announced yesterday. The number of habeas corpus applications from victims of domestic violence also increased over the past five years, which shows that the public is becoming more and more aware of its rights, police officials said. While reported cases of continuing domestic violence after the issuance of a habeas corpus writ rose from 501 in 2000 to 961 last year, the number of people arrested red-handed jumped from 432 in 2000 to 717 last year, the officials said.
■ Diplomacy
MOFA expects Clinton visit
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed reports yesterday that former US president Bill Clinton is expected to visit before the end of this month as part of an Asian tour. Sources said Clinton will arrive on Feb. 27 and leave the following day. Ministry spokesman Michel Lu (呂慶龍) said the ministry invited Clinton to visit to show the country's admiration for his contributions to maintaining stability in the Asia-Pacific area during his tenure. Inviting retired US presidents, as well as heads of state from countries that are friendly toward Taiwan, has always been the ministry's set policy, Lu said. Ministry officials said Clinton is expected meet with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and deliver a speech in Taipei during the visit, the details of which have yet to be fleshed out. They said Clinton would likely be accorded treatment befitting a head of state during his visit. Lu also confirmed that the government would pay Clinton a fee, according to international norms, but the amount was not disclosed. Clinton is to tour South Asian and Southeast Asian countries that were battered by the Dec. 26 tsunami, as well as Japan, South Korea and China.
■ Sports
Wang loses in Rotterdam
Wang Yeu-Tzuoo (王宇佐) lost to Joachim Johansson at the World Indoor Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands, yesterday -- but he made the Swede work for his 6-2 6-7 6-3 victory. Johansson was in imperious form in the first set as he overpowered Wang with thundering groundstrokes. Wang refused to be intimidated by his opponent and hit back in the second when Johansson prepared to serve out for a straight sets victory. He broke the fifth-seeded Swede while trailing 4-5 in the set by forcing him to swipe a forehand into the net before running away with the tiebreak 7-2.
■ Society
Diaries transfer criticized
The transfer of the personal diaries of two presidents to the US has hurt the feelings of the people, the Democratic Progressive Party legislative caucus said yesterday. The diaries of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) were taken to the US earlier this year by Chiang Ching-kuo's daughter-in-law Chiang Fang Chih-yi (蔣方 智怡) and given to the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. "Although the Chiang family's move was not illegal, it has hurt the Taiwanese people's feelings," said Legislator Lai ching-te (賴清德). Lai said the presidents' personal effects are Taiwan's assets. Academia Sinica had expressed a keen interest in the diaries. Fang said in San Francisco on Tuesday that the contents of the diaries were closely related with modern Chinese history. "Therefore, the Chiang family would not keep them private," she said. "We hope to present them to internationally recognized experts for preservation and study in an open, just and impartial manner." She said the Hoover would store the diaries for 50 years.
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