President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday said he hoped to visit Burkina Faso in May to preside over the ground-breaking ceremony of a medical center there in May.
The west African country is scheduled to start construction of a 600-bed national facility in the capital city of Ouagadougou before next year's parliamentary elections.
Chen made the remarks while receiving President Blaise Compaore at the Presidential Office yesterday morning. The meeting came after a military ceremony held in front of the Presidential Office. Compaore arrived in Taipei on Sunday for a five-day visit.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen added that the 15,000 military uniforms that the administration has pledged to Burkina Faso would be delivered in March, Chen said.
As Compaore was a paratrooper, the president said that he was thinking of letting Burkina Faso inspect Taiwan's parachuting equipment.
If all goes well, both countries could consider forging a cooperative program, he added.
Chen apologized to Compaore and his wife on behalf of first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), saying she was not able to attend because she had not been feeling well lately.
As Compaore won 81 percent of the votes in last year's presidential election, Chen said he hoped the ruling party would win in next year's parliamentary election.
Chen also conveyed his hope that the African Union would support Burkina Faso and help it realize its dream of becoming a non-standing member of the UN Security Council in 2008.
Meanwhile, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), in a veiled reference to the troubles besetting Chen, said that money and power were ephemeral and that leaving a lasting legacy was more important.
"Character, upbringing, patriotism and love are important," Lee said. "Many things that happen today have a lot to do with the lack of dignity."
Money and power have little meaning because they are transitory, he said, citing as an example that when he left the presidency, the power went with it.
"Spiritual fulfillment is worth a lifetime's pursuit," he said.
Lee made the remarks while addressing an award ceremony in Taipei yesterday morning.
When asked about the controversy involving Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou's (
Speculations have mounted that Lee was so upset with the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), in which he is the spiritual leader, that he refused to campaign for TSU candidates for next month's elections.
While Lee yesterday said that he did not know whether he would stump for TSU candidates, TSU Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) said that Lee would see all TSU candidates tomorrow and offer encouragement.
Lin said the reason that Lee did not campaign for the party's candidate for Kaohsiung mayoral election, Lo Chih-ming (
Speculation was rife that Lee's absence was because he was unhappy with the TSU's about-face on the legislature's third attempt to recall Chen.
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