■ Society
Team heads to Philippines
The International Headquarters SAR Taiwan, a group of search and rescue volunteers, dispatched a 34-member group to the Philippines yesterday to help with rescue work in the village of Guinsaugon, where hundreds of people were killed by a mudslide on Friday. The team includes three volunteers from Dharma Drum Mountain -- a Buddhist temple -- who will attend relief work. The team is carrying advanced life-saving equipment, 250 boxes of instant noodles, 150 boxes of bottled water, 56 tents and 200 sleeping bags. To support the team's humanitarian cause, China Airlines has decided to foot the bill for the trip to and from the Philippines. Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳) was at the airport to see off the team and wish its members a successful mission.
PHOTO: YAO CHIEH-HSIU, TAIPEI TIMES
■ Cross-strait ties
No decision yet on NUC
No final decision has been made on whether to formally do away with the National Unification Council (NUC) and National Unification Guidelines, a Presidential Office spokesman said yesterday. Chen Wen-tsung (陳文宗), director of the Public Affairs Department, made the remarks after the People First Party (PFP) legislative caucus said yesterday that if President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) insists on going ahead with plans to abolish the council and guidelines, it would push for the passage of its "cross-strait peace promotion" bill that requires immediate opening of direct transport links. "The National Security Council has not yet finalizd its review [of the proposal], " Chen Wen-tsung said, adding that issue is far from being decided.
■ Society
Confucius descendent born
The 80th-generation lineal descendant of the philosopher Confucius (孔子) has been born in Taiwan, a family member said yesterday. Kung Teh-cheng (孔德成), Confucius' 77th-generation descendant, who is the chief "sacred rites official" at rituals in memory of the ancient sage and also a senior adviser to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), said his great-grandchild, Kung You-jen (孔佑仁), was born on New Year's Day. "He is a healthy baby," 87-year-old Kung said, adding that the family will soon inform the Ministry of the Interior of the birth in order to qualify the child to inherit the ceremonial position in the future. The "sacred rites official" is a government post held by the eldest male descendant of Confucius. In Taiwan, Confucius' birthday, Sept. 28, is celebrated as Teacher's Day. The Kung family moved to Taiwan from China in 1949.
■ Technology
Doggie pal developed
Good news for people whose hearts may have been broken by the passing of a canine pal: a robot dog that never dies and is nearly as cute as a real one has been developed in Taiwan. Although it doesn't sport any fur, the dog, developed by Academia Sinica researcher Liu Ting-lu, can wag its tail, perk up its ears, respond to its owner's call or locate its master in a crowd of people using voice and facial recognition. The robot dog can also be used to stand guard around the clock and transmit electronic images to its owner's office computer or other computer through a digital camera in its head.
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