■ HEALTH
More flu cases recorded
The Central Epidemic Command Center reported seven new A(H1N1) cases yesterday, bringing the nation's total tally for swine flu to 51. All of the new cases were overseas infections, the center told a press conference. Four of the cases came from Thailand — two male students aged 21 and 22, one 25-year-old female student and a 28-year-old man, the center said. The other three cases were from the US — two 18-year-old students and a 31-year-old man of Thai nationality, it said. All seven are now in quarantine, the center said.
■ DIPLOMACY
Ou positive on Panama
Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) expressed optimism on Sunday about ties with Panama. Ou arrived in Panama City on Sunday for a two-day visit to promote bilateral cooperation and boost Taipei's knowledge of the incoming Panamanian government's policies and priorities, he said in an interview with the Central News Agency. Ou said he believed that relations with Panama, which date back to 1954, would remain stable and solid. Ou was scheduled to meet Panamanian president-elect Ricardo Martinelli and his incoming foreign minister, Juan Carlos Varela. He was also to give a briefing on Taiwan's development and offer Taiwanese assistance to aid Panama's economic development, Ou said. Martinelli and Varela will assume office on July 1.
■ DIPLOMACY
Rights covenant sent to UN
The government has sent instruments of ratification for two UN human rights covenants to the UN Secretariat for deposit through four of its diplomatic allies, Taiwan's representative office in the US said on Saturday. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) signed the UN-sponsored International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights into law on May 14, a move that ensures implementation of the two human rights treaties under the country's domestic laws. As Taiwan lost its China seat in the UN in 1971, it asked the UN ambassadors of Palau, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize and Gambia to refer the ratification documents to the UN Secretariat on June 8 for deposit. The action marked completion of the legal procedures for ratifying the two covenants, sources close to the representative office said. The UN Secretariat has so far not commented on Taiwan's ratification of the two pacts.
■ POLITICS
Chen Chu rates high: poll
Kaohsiung City Government has earned the acclaim of its residents after completing several public infrastructure projects, a survey by the city's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission said. The poll conducted between June 7 and June 9 found that 72.4 percent of 1,081 respondents were satisfied with the city government's performance, up 7.6 percentage points from a similar survey conducted last month. Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), of the Democratic Progressive Party, had a 76 percent approval rating, while 11.6 percent of respondents expressed disapproval. The poll also found that 81.5 percent of those surveyed said they felt proud to be a resident of the city, while 8.6 percent held an opposing view. Those who expressed dissatisfaction with the government's administrative performance complained about the poor quality of city roads, haphazard road construction, chaotic traffic, dirty and disorderly streets, poor public safety, high unemployment and air pollution, the poll showed.
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