■ DIPLOMACY
City declares ‘Tibet Day’
Tibetans in Taiwan, Tibet activists and local political leaders will join a ceremony at Central Park in Kaohsiung at 11:30am, which will be followed by a parade through the city. Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) will declare today “Tibet Day” in Kaohsiung during the event in the presence of representatives from several worldwide Tibetan organizations, the Tibetan Government in Exile’s representative Dawa Tsering, as well as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). A candlelight vigil to honor Tibetans killed in the struggle for freedom during the past 50 years will be held at 7:30pm at Liberty Square in Taipei.
■ POLITICS
Ma’s mind not made up
The Presidential Office yesterday said that officials have not yet decided whether to rename some of the building’s conference rooms following the name change of National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall. Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) yesterday said that his staff was still studying the possibility. Wang made the remarks in response to questions about a story in the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday. The report claimed that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had instructed the Presidential Office to change the names of 10 of its conference rooms in the near future. Some of the names under consideration were Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水), former Chinese governor of Taiwan Liu Ming-chuan (劉銘傳) and late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國).
■ POLITICS
Su may run in county poll
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators said yesterday that former DPP chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) was likely to represent the party in the Taipei County commissioner election this year. Su, however, has declined to say whether he would enter the race. DPP Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said Su had not made a decision on the commissioner race, but the party believes Taipei County — the country’s largest administrative region — would be key among this year’s city and county elections and was working to put forward its best candidate. Cheng also said the party was still negotiating among three hopefuls in the Tainan County election. The party has not yet come up with a single candidate for the county election, as two legislators, Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) and Lee Chun-yee, have expressed a desired to run, while former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) former Presidential Office secretary-general Mark Chen (陳唐山) has also said he would enter the race, whether the party nominates him or not.
■ DIPLOMACY
Taiwan extends loan
Taiwan has agreed in principle to allow Paraguay to defer repayment of a US$400 million loan that it granted to the South American diplomatic ally, Foreign Minister Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) said in Panama on Sunday. “However, the loan must be repaid,” Ou said at Panama City International Airport, where he was waiting for several hours before heading to the Dominican Republic. Ou said that before embarking on his current trip to cement relations with Taiwan’s Central and South American allies, he obtained an agreement from the Taiwanese banks that repayment of the syndicated loan made to Paraguay several years ago could be deferred for six months.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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