■ Society
Ma's father dies
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) father Ma Ho-ling (馬鶴凌) died last night at Cathay General Hospital after the family agreed to pull life support. He was 86. His body will be transferred to the city's No. 2 Funeral House. The senior Ma expressed in his will that he would like to be cremated and buried alongside his mother. Ma Ho-ling was rushed to the hospital on Sunday afternoon after suffering a heart attack. He had remained in a coma since. He showed no signs of life upon arrival, but his heart began beating again after first aid was administered. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) expressed their condolences upon learning of the news last night.
■ Health
DPP warns on China visits
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday warned travelers to China of the avian-flu threat after signs appeared that Chinese authorities might be concealing information about bird-flu outbreaks. William Lai (賴清德), a DPP legislative caucus whip, said Beijing has been reluctant to open its doors to World Health Organization experts to engage in investigations in avian flu-affected areas in China, insisting that there have been no documented human cases of bird flu in the country despite several outbreaks among poultry reported in the past several weeks. He added that outbreaks have been reported in Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Anhui and Hunan, while a 12-year-old girl in Hunan Province was reported to have died after showing flu-like symptoms
■ Military affairs
The hunt for `Samho Brother'
Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑) said yesterday that weather permitting, he will dispatch a naval vessel that will use sonar to attempt to locate the exact position of an overturned cargo ship carrying a payload of benzene off Hsinchu. Lee said last week that he had been embarrassed after F-16 jet fighters tried to bomb the ship to sink it. Most of the bombs missed, and helicopters carrying hellfire missiles were also unsuccessful. Reports at the time said the vessel was holed, but did not explode or sink. A helicopter inspection on Sunday found that there was no trace of the ship, while the water in the area was a silver-gray color, suggesting that the benzene may have leaked into the water -- the very situation the bombing was meant to prevent. The South Korean-registered Samho Brother capsized on Oct. 10 after a collision with another vessel. All 14 crewmembers were rescued. In addition to its cargo of benzene, the Samho Brother was carrying 85 tonnes of fuel oil and 16 tonnes of diesel.
■ Foreign affairs
Ramos arrives for visit
Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos and his wife, at the head of a 15-member delegation, arrived yesterday for a six-day visit at the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). MOFA Spokesman Michel Lu (呂慶龍) said that the visit by Ramos, who has always taken a pro-Taiwan stance, is expected to help boost economic and trade relations between Taiwan and the Philippines. Lu noted that this is Ramos' second visit to the country. He visited Taiwan for the first time in September 2000. While here, Ramos will meet with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Foreign Affairs Minister Mark Chen (陳唐山) and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to exchange views on issues of mutual concern, Lu 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
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