■ Education
Study in Australia popular
Australia has become the third-most-popular destination for Taiwanese students studying overseas, behind the US and Britain, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Education (MOE). The statistics show that last year, 14,054 students obtained US student visas, 9,207 students got British visas and 2,246 got Australian visas. Education officials ascribed the increased interest in Australia to the fact that it is an English-speaking nation with an education system compatible with that of Taiwan. As a result, the International Education Expo sponsored by the MOE this year will started yesterday with a presentation in Taipei by the Australian Education Center, to be followed by presentations in Taichung and Kaohsiung. According to statistics released by the Australian Education Center in Taipei, more than 300,000 foreign students enrolled in Australian schools in 2003, 75 percent of whom studied at universities, colleges and vocational schools. Business, management and information industry were the three fields of study most popular among foreign students.
■ Politics
Ma denies arms-bill rumors
The chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) denied speculation that he is prepared to let the long-stalled special arms procurement budget bill be listed on the legislative agenda for review. Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is also mayor of Taipei, made the denial when asked to comment on an allegation by independent Legislator Li Ao (李敖) that Ma has instructed one of his deputies, John Kuan (關中), to set up a task force to study how to get the bill listed on the legislative agenda. Ma said that the decision on whether the bill should be put on the agenda lies with the KMT's legislative caucus, which will have to form a consensus on the issue. Li vowed that he would make retaliatory moves against the KMT if Ma should let the bill slip onto the legislative agenda. Another factor that makes the passage of the bill in the legislature unlikely is the obstruction by KMT's small political ally, the People First Party, which has vowed never to let the bill pass the Procedure Committee. The pan-blue dominated committee has blocked the bill 30 times in more than one year.
■ Society
Children's rights honored
Authorities from the Children's Bureau under the Ministry of the Interior urged the public to seek to protect, defend and promote the "10 rights" and welfare of all children in Taiwan. Huang Pi-hsia (黃碧霞), director of the bureau, announced that the last quarter of this year has been designated "children's rights season" across the nation. Defining the "10 rights" of children, Huang said children should have the right to life, to welfare and protection, to status, to family and growth, to equality, to social participation and represen-tation, to play, to health, to education and to privacy. They should also be entitled to the same basic human rights as the rest of society, Huang said, adding that parents should not treat their children as "property" to which they have the right to "appropriate" or "handle." Instead, Huang said, children are the common assets of the country. During the "child-ren's rights season," 26 public and private organizations will jointly sponsor 95 rounds of activities nationwide to educate adults and children alike as to the rights and welfare of children, Huang said.
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