■ Politics
Embassy planned in Nauru
The Republic of China's (ROC) embassy in Nauru is expected to be running by the end of the month, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday. The president made the remark while receiving Nauruan parliamentary speaker Valdon Dowiyogo at the Presidential Office yesterday morning. Taiwan and Nauru first established diplomatic relations in 1980. After Nauru switched its allegiance to China in July 2002, it re-established diplomatic relations with Taiwan in May 2005. Chen, who visited the Micronesian South Pacific island nation in September last year, was the first Taiwanese president to visit Nauru, which became independent in 1968.
■ Defense
Recruit standards change
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday made public the latest standards for the physical condition of recruits. Reporters immediately questioned whether the new standards were too lax. Recruits will be required to run 3km in 19 minutes. After six months of military service, the time limit will be 15 minutes. "I have to say that this standard for physical training is designed to help recruits gradually get used to tough military training," said Rear Admiral Wu Chi-fang (吳季方), spokesman for the ministry. "Every country in the world does the same thing to train their recruits. It will not be a problem."
■ Society
Weather kills mountaineer
The leader of a trio of mountaineers attempting to scale Mount Nanhu (南湖大山) and the Central Range Point has died after temperatures in the area suddenly dropped, said fire brigade officials who responded to an emergency call for help yesterday. The officials said they received emergency calls saying that the team's leader, Lai Shan-chieh (賴杉杰), had died while two companions -- Ting Ching-chun (丁清俊) and Chou Mei-chu (周美珠) -- were suffering from hypothermia. Ting and Chou are temporarily quartered at a tourist lodge in Nanhu while awaiting medical assistance. A seven-member rescue team has set off from the brigade's detachment near Lishan (梨山), but it will take them three to four days to reach the mountain lodge, officials said. The brigade requested a helicopter for the rescue mission, but bad weather conditions barred the option.
■ Justice
Task force members affirmed
Members of the country's top investigation task force have been approved by the Prosecutors' Personnel Review Committee under the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), an official of the Supreme Prosecutor's Office said yesterday. The 10 prosecutors were selected by State Public Prosecutor-General Chen Tsung-ming (陳聰明) and submitted to the ministry for approval earlier yesterday. Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南), who is currently an MOJ counselor, will be the task force head. The other nine members include another MOJ counselor and eight prosecutors from different high court and district prosecutors' offices. The spokesman said they would work directly under the leadership of the state public prosecutor-general and deal with crimes committed by top government officials or their relatives. The task force will start operating in April after the 10 members are officially appointed by the MOJ, the spokesman said.
■ Health
Taiwanese can't sleep
Over one-quarter of Taiwanese suffer from problems related to sleeping, including insomnia, with more women than men experiencing problems, a study published yesterday showed. The Taiwan Society of Sleep Medicine's survey of 4,011 people over 15 years of age found that 25.5 percent of respondents, or 4.8 million, had sleep-related problems. Increasing numbers of Taiwanese are troubled by a lack of sleep, it showed, with 24.8 percent reporting some manner of sleep disorder and 11.5 percent suffering chronic insomnia. The figures indicated that more than one in every 10 people regularly had serious difficulties sleeping. Thirty percent of women reported troubles falling asleep. More than half of women aged 50 to 59 reported menopause-related sleep problems, the survey found. Hsu Shih-chieh (許世杰) of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou (林口) said that people who had trouble sleeping for more than one month might be suffering from chronic insomnia and should seek assistance from a physician.
■ Politics
Ma vows to ease restriction
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said he would ease a key restriction on investment in China if elected president next year. "Generally speaking, the 40 percent ceiling has to go," Ma said of a rule subjecting Taiwanese companies' investment in China to that share of their net worth. Ma said there would be some exceptions to this liberalization. Speaking at a conference in Taipei organized by Merrill Lynch & Co, he said limits on some technology investments would need to be maintained for national security reasons, although they would be eased.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition