■ Diplomacy
Foreign presidents to visit
The presidents of the Dominican Republic and Guatemala will visit in April and August respectively, the government said. The Dominican Republic's Vice Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Trullols, who is in Taiwan to attend the Taiwan-Central American foreign ministers meeting, informed President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) that President Leonel Fernandez would lead a delegation to Taiwan in April, the presidential office said in a statement. "President Chen said he looks forward to meeting President Fernandez again in Taipei. He hopes President Fernandez' visit can attract more Taiwanese businessmen to invest in the Dominican Republic," the statement said. Meanwhile, Guatemalan President Oscar Berger is scheduled to visit in August. Taiwan and Guatemala completed their first round of free trade talks on Friday, and expect to finish negotiations before August.
■ Culture
Youths get democracy lesson
A two-day training camp to foster a democratic spirit among young people and train them to advocate democracy in modern society, the first of its kind in Taiwan, opened in Kaohsiung yesterday. Around 60 young people attended the event, organized by the National Youth Commission. Commission Chairwoman Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) and acting Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) delivered opening speeches. The training camp can serve as a continuation of last year's National Youth Conference, Cheng said, adding that disagreements are normal in a democracy, while respecting individual differences is one of the true principles of democracy.
■ Architecture
UK team to attend seminar
A six-member team from Foster & Partners, a prominent British firm of architects, will arrive in Taipei next Sunday to attend an international seminar on urban renewal and cultural renaissance, according to the Council for Cultural Affairs. The team will be headed by Andrew Miller, a senior partner of Foster & Partners, council Chairman Chen Chi-nan (陳其南) said. Chen met Sir Norman Foster, the 1999 laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, who heads Foster & Partners, during a visit to the UK last fall. Chen invited the company's architects and urban development planners to visit Taiwan this year to exchange views on how to inject new life into several of Taipei's historic relics and old buildings. In addition to attending the two-day seminar starting on March 14, Chen said, the six visitors will tour several cultural facilities and old buildings, including the Huashan Art Center, the National Palace Museum and the old Taipei Railway Ministry building.
■ Politics
Soong underestimated: Lu
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday expressed regret that the meeting between President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) late last month had turned from "what was supposed to be a good thing" to "a storm in a tea-cup." Lu made the remark in reference to the uproar among pan-green supporters in the wake the meeting, who were irked by the 10-point consensus reached between Chen and Soong, in which Chen reiterated that he would not promote Taiwanese independence or change the country's official name during his term in office. Lu attributed the reason to Chen's personal aids, who are generally young, to have underestimated Soong's ability at political scheming.
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