■ Politics
Su gives ad cash back
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday returned donations provided by members of his Cabinet that Su had initially requested for help to pay for an ad he placed in local newspapers. Su purchased half-page advertisements in three Chinese-language newspapers on May 4, urging the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus to stop ignoring the review of the government's budget proposal for this fiscal year. At the bottom of the advertisement, Su said the total cost of the advertisement -- about NT$800,000 -- would be covered by donations from Cabinet members. Cabinet spokeswoman Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) yesterday said the premier had collected NT$480,000 from Cabinet members, but that he would return the money. The premier appreciated the donations but decided he would pay the advertisement costs himself, Chen said.
■ Tourism
Taiwan taster trips touted
The National Youth Commission will be opening 98 study-travel programs this summer for young people from home and abroad to enable them to engage in first-hand, in-depth exploration of Taiwan, commission officials said yesterday. More than 6,000 openings in around 200 camps in 98 study-tour packages will be available this upcoming summer break to allow young Taiwanese aged 15 to 30 to see, sense and touch the land where they live and allow young people from abroad to discover Taiwan's multi-faceted and pluralistic society as well as its natural beauty, officials said. Interested individuals can visit the commission's Web site at http: //www.youthtravel.tw/tour.
■ Culture
Taiwan part of peace survey
A total of 120 countries and territories around the world, including Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, are being covered in an unprecedented "peace" survey, whose results are expected to be released at the end of this month. The world's first peace survey is the brainchild of Steve Killelea, an Australian entrepreneur and humanitarian, who came up with the idea during a trip to Africa four years ago in which he saw first-hand how wars and economic depression were afflicting the people of the continent. With a "scientific survey" aimed at calculating the amount of peace in a country, Killelea said that he hopes the UN, governments, non-governmental organizations, and all civic groups around the world will take the survey as an indicator that reminds them how much still needs to be done to achieve true peace.
■ Sports
City sets up games body
The Kaohsiung City Government will set up a sports agency to help with preparations for the 2009 World Games. Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Cheng Wen-lung (鄭文隆) said the preparatory work for the World Games is mainly handled by the Kaohsiung Organizing Committee for the 2009 World Games -- a civic organization funded by the Kaohsiung City Government -- and assisted by officials from the city government's Bureau of Education and personnel from the Kaohsiung Municipal Stadium. The new agency will help the committee coordinate projects ahead of the Games, including the recruitment of volunteers, organization of the work force and promotional work for both the Games and the city, he said. The 2009 World Games will be the first major global sports event to be held in Taiwan in 60 years.
■ Society
NGO seeks funds for kids
A charity group urged the public yesterday to support its fund-raising campaign with the goal of building 100 kindergartens for 5,000 impoverished children in Vietnam. Compassion International is an NGO that focuses mainly on international aid projects, said Jay Hung (洪智杰), managing director of the group. Three years ago, after visiting kindergartens in poor condition in Vietnam, the group decided to help build new kindergartens in the country's poorest regions, he said. "Locals told us there was a great need for kindergartens as parents need places to leave their children while they go to work," he said. So far, the group has worked with locals to build five kindergartens and train teachers, Hung said.
■ Politics
Lee to visit Japan
Taiwan's representative office in Japan will provide any necessary assistance to facilitate a visit to Japan by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). Taiwan's representative to Japan Koh Se-kai (許世楷) told Taiwanese media posted in Japan yesterday that his office had not received a detailed itinerary for Lee, but had been informed that six to seven people would accompany Lee on his visit. Lee plans to travel to Japan late this month for a 10-day visit, during which he will receive a prize marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of Japanese colonial administrator Shinpei Goto and deliver a speech during the ceremony, sources close to Lee said. Before his return to Taiwan, Lee will host a social gathering to express gratitude to his Japanese hosts, with a number of politicians, including former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, invited to attend, they 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
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