■DIPLOMACY
Tsai calls for caution
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that while the DPP did not oppose engaging China, the lack of transparency that has characterized the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) rapprochement with China was unhealthy. Government and KMT officials never disclosed whether they had business interests in China, which has sparked public concern that KMT officials’ exchanges with China could be at the expense of Taiwan’s interests, Tsai said. Tsai made the remarks against the backdrop of a recent visit to China by Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), a DPP member, who visited in her capacity as president of the World Games 2009 Kaohsiung Organizing Committee. Tainan Mayor Hsu Tian-tsair (許添財), another DPP member, announced on Wednesday that he would visit Xiamen next month for the opening ceremony of the first cross-strait sailing competition. “The DPP does not prohibit its elected officials from visiting China, but I hope soon to establish regulations for party members visiting China,” Tsai said, adding, “I personally have no plan to visit China.”
■ARTS
Ikenobo assembly in Taipei
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday that the annual assembly of Japan’s oldest floral art school, Ikenobo, which was held in Taipei, was a step forward in cultural exchanges between the two countries and strengthened the friendship between them. “The gathering here today serves as a platform for floral art exchanges between Taiwan and Japan, indicating not only the close cooperation between the two sides but also strengthening our long-lasting friendship,” Hau said at the assembly. Praising the 550-year-old Ikenobo for its efforts in spreading the spirit of Japanese floral art to the world, Hau invited the organization to participate in the Taipei International Flora Expo scheduled to open on Nov. 6 next year.
■HEALTH
New flu case announced
The Central Epidemics Command Center (CECC) yesterday announced the nation’s 11th confirmed case of A(H1N1) influenza, a 19-year-old Taiwanese college student in California who returned to Taipei on Wednesday night from Boston after making transits in Chicago and Tokyo. CECC spokesman Shih Wen-yi (施文儀) said the female student had been staying with relatives in Boston for about a week before she left for Taiwan on Tuesday. Upon her arrival at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the student, accompanied by her parents, took the Free Go Bus from the airport to Taichung, during which she developed a fever, Shih said. The student visited a hospital on Thursday for a check-up and was immediately quarantined, Shih said. The bus driver also developed a fever and was quarantined, Shih said, adding that while he could not divulge the name of the carrier the student had flown in, all flight attendants had been contacted for testing.
■CONSTRUCTION
Work continues on Zhongxiao
Road resurfacing work on Zhongxiao E Road will be completed tomorrow as scheduled, city officials said. People are encouraged to take the MRT to the area today and tomorrow, the Taipei City Government said. The westbound lanes of the road between Yanji street and Da-an road will be closed today, and the section between Da-an Road and Fuxing S Road will be closed to traffic tomorrow for resurfacing work, the New Construction Office 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
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