■ Health
Sick boy gives bird flu scare
A two year old boy from China was examined after doctors suspected he might have contracted bird flu, when he arrived in Kinmen with his mother yesterday. However, the boy tested negative for any trace of bird flu, and doctors had ruled out an infection after their initial examination. Nonetheless, the boy for now will remain in a hospital in Kinmen as doctors await final confirmation from the Center for Disease Control, which is reviewing his case. The boy was found to have a fever by authorities in Kinmen when he debarked on the island. His mother, a Chinese national married to a Taiwanese, told authorities her son had had a fever since Tuesday and had vomited several times. The mother and son arrived in Kinmen under the"small three links," which allow for direct postal, transportation and shipping contact between the island and China. The authorities said the boy came into contact with chickens and ducks at his home in China.
■ Defense
Ministry denies PLA rumors
There have been no unusual movements of Chinese military forces following President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) announcement that the National Unification Council would cease to function, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. Ministry spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Henry Liu (劉得詮) said intelligence sources indicated there had been no unusual People's Liberation Army movements so far. Liu was responding to reports that Chinese military sources had suggested to their leaders that annual military exercises be expanded this year beyond the scale witnessed in 1996, when Beijing attempted to intimidate Taiwan prior to its first popular presidential election. Liu said the reports were unsubstantiated and may have been part of Beijing's propaganda campaign against Taiwan.
■ Society
Compensation bill drafted
The Executive Yuan yesterday finalized a draft law allowing for compensatory measures for people who had leprosy who might have been wrongly quarantined by the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government. The bill, which must first pass the legislature, stipulates that the compensatory measures will include financial compensation and the restoration of reputation to the former lepers, with methods such as a public apology by the government and mourning for the deceased. The bill states that people who had leprosy can apply for a maximum compensation of NT$200,000 (US$6,211) within two years of the law taking effect. Those who were subjected to compulsory quarantine in sanatoriums between Oct. 25, 1945 and March 31, 1962 can receive NT$100,000 for each year they were quarantined.
■ Society
Extreme marathoner honored
Lin Yi-jeh (林義傑), champion of the world's most extreme marathon competition, was awarded the Order of the Brilliant Star, fourth class, by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who dubbed Lin "Taiwan's Forrest Gump." "The spirit of `Taiwan's Forrest Gump' is the spirit of `the son of Taiwan,'" Chen said. "Such spirit is to create something from nothing and produce possibility in the most extreme conditions." He complemented Lin on his patriotism, because Lin always carried a national flag during the races and showed it whenever he got a chance. Lin told the president that he vividly remembers developing a high fever when running in the Amazon and suffering from hypothermia in the South Pole, and being proud to say, "I am from Taiwan."
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