■ Politics
Chen Yi-hsin pulls out
Former baseball star Chen Yi-hsin (陳義信) yesterday said he was withdrawing from the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) list of nominees for the National Assembly elections. Chen, an Aborigine, was ranked 30th on the list, which would have assured him a seat. But he said he was withdrawing because he wants to pursue his graduate studies and his work at the Jia Chi Fitness Center. Chen had run as a DPP candidate in the 2001 legislative elections in Hualien County and for Taipei City councilor in 2002, but lost both times. The DPP has not found a replacement for Chen yet, DPP Secretary-General Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) said yesterday.
■ Politics
DPP raises staff salaries
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is having to lay off workers and cut salaries, but Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) announced that 150 DPP workers will enjoy a raise of about 3 percent after a proposal for reappointment of the party's annual budgets was passed by the party's Central Standing Committee yesterday. This year will be the first time DPP workers will get a raise since the party won the presidency in 2000. Lee said DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) made the decision after he discussed the party's expenses with financial affairs committee director Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘). Lee said the salary hikes will add more than NT$4.7 million to the party's annual budget. "The raise will take effect on April 1," he said. News of the salary increase was greeted with jubilation at party headquarters yesterday.
■ Politics
Tempers flare over Lo song
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) lawmakers yesterday criticized the Public Television Service for airing a concert last weekend that featured a performance of a song satirizing former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). Referring to Lee by his nickname, the song A-hui raises a dog by popular singer Lo Ta-you (羅大佑) accuses the former leader of hounding President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), with lyrics saying ``A-hui raises a dog that bites.'' Lo, a singer and songwriter known for his acerbic political songs, is close to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). The legislators said taxpayers' money should not be spent on ideologically biased shows. The station has apologized, saying it did not mean to discredit Lee and noting that Lo was one of several pop singers featured in a concert aired by the station. "Airing the concert was inapprop-riate," the station said in a statement. "We apologize for tarnishing the reputations of the persons concerned."
■ Safety
Fire disrupts work day
Choking from breathing in thick smoke, a number of people needed to be rushed to hospital for treatment but luckily no one sustained serious injuries from a fire which broke out in the ABC Building located in Xintian's Industrial Parks late yesterday afternoon. Although the fire was soon put out, because of the heavy smoke, as many as 45 staff members who were working in the top floors of the building had to run onto the roof and wait for rescue by helicopter. While the cause of the fire was still under investigation by officials, initial investigation reports suggested that the fire probably originated in an electricity transformer located in the basement of the building.
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:
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
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