■ Health
Suicides cause alarm
Health authorities yesterday urged people to treasure life after 14 Taiwanese committed suicide the day before. "People who are suicidal should seek professional help, because to psychiatrists and psychologists, depression can be cured like a cold," said Lin Ming-cheng, a Department of Health (DOH) official in charge of suicide prevention. Lin said the DOH plans to set up a national suicide-prevention taskforce to coordinate efforts in raising public awareness and expanding the mental health care network. In 2003, Taiwan reported 3,195 suicides, averaging 8.7 a day or one suicide every two and a half hours. The rate was 14 suicides per every 100,000 inhabitants. Preliminary figures for last year revealed some 3,400 suicides, for an average of about 9.3 per day, the health department said. Japan has the highest suicide rate in Asia. About 30,000 Japanese commit suicide each year, averaging 80 per day, or one every 20 minutes.
■ Cross-strait ties
Beijing urged to talk to Chen
A top US official urged China yesterday to deal directly with the elected government of Taiwan. While the visits of Taiwanese opposition leaders to Beijing were a positive development, US deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick said it wouldn't surprise him if the Chinese were trying to "foster division in Taiwan." "That's why it's important, obviously, for Beijing to deal with the elected government as well," Zoellick said. People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday became the second Taiwanese opposition leader to visit China in less than a week. "The need would be for Beijing to talk to the elected government in Taiwan," Zoellick said. "As you know, Mr. Soong is just headed for Beijing now, carrying a message from President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). We hope it will follow a positive course."
■ Media
CNA inks Mexican deal
The Central News Agency (CNA), the national news wire service, signed a cooperation agreement yesterday with Notimex, a Mexican news agency. The president of CNA, Lee Wai-lai (李萬來), and Enrigue Aranda Pedroza, director-general of Notimex, signed the agreement in a ceremony held at the agency's headquarters in Taipei. Under the agreement, both sides agreed to exchange news services, including text and photos. Aranda, who came to Taiwan on Monday at the invitation of the Government Information Office for a five-day visit, has called on government officials and met business executives. He also went to the National Palace Museum and Taipei 101, world's tallest skyscraper. He will leave Taiwan today. Notimex, which employs more than 500 people at home and overseas, is a semi-official news agency that was established in 1968.
■ Education
Swedes visit university
A six-member Swedish parliamentary group visited National Chiao Tung University yesterday. The group said this was their first visit to a Taiwanese university, and that they were very impressed by its good learning environment and verdant campus. The group also met Swedish exchange students from Chalmers University of Technology in Goteborg. Chiao Tung University president Chang Chun-yen (張俊彥) said that the universities have close academic exchanges. There are currently eight Swedish students from Chalmers studying at Chiao Tung University, while the latter also has 10 college students and two students studying for their doctorates at the Swedish university.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
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