■ DIPLOMACY
Ma itinerary unchanged
President Ma Ying-jeou? (馬英九) upcoming trip to Central American remains unchanged despite rising tensions in Honduras, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday, adding that the government is continuing to observe developments in the Central American ally. Ma will make state visits to three Central American countries tomorrow. The purpose of the trip is to attend the inauguration of Panamanian president-elect Ricardo Martinelli on Wednesday. The trip will also take Ma to Nicaragua and Honduras. Earlier this week, the Presidential Office changed Ma? travel plans and delayed Ma? visit to Honduras by one day. The Presidential Office said the delay was to take into consideration that Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya may still be out of the country the day Ma was originally scheduled to arrive, despite Zelaya? pledge that he would have returned by then. Tensions are rising in Honduras after Zelaya ignored a court order to reinstate the army chief. Zelaya fired General Romeo Vasquez after he refused to help with a referendum on constitutional change that could allow Zelaya to seek a second term.
■ SOCIETY
TRA, CPC hold job tests
The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) and CPC Corp, Taiwan (中油公司) yesterday held tests to recruit new employees, with a massive number of applicants vying for the few openings. The state-run oil company was to recruit entry-level technicians through this year? test. A total of 17,933 people took the test this year, but only 198 of them will be accepted. The starting salary for entry-level technicians is NT$26,000. A second test was held yesterday for those who have already passed written tests. TV footage showed applicants being asked to climb up and down the stairs of a 20m high platform within 90 seconds. They had to stand on top of the platform for about 10 seconds before climbing down in order to secure a passing grade. Meanwhile, approximately 29,000 people registered for tests at the TRA and competed for 445 positions that are available this year. The acceptance rate was about 1.5 percent.
■ CULTURE
Artist workshop opened
The Taipei Artist Village, a non-governmental artist community run by the Taipei Culture Foundation, yesterday launched its first ?unArts?Artist Workshop in Grass Mountain Arts Village in suburban Taipei. ?eave the complex city behind, concentrate on the needles, feel the art, enjoy a moment of silence,?the Villare urged the public in a press release. An embroidery workshop was held on Friday and will be held again on July 11 from 2:30pm to 4:30pm at 92 Art Center, Grass Mountain Arts Village. Discounts of 10 percent will be offered to people who hold a Children? Arts Festival Passport.
■ DIPLOMACY
European camp restarted
Taiwan will restart a two-week camp for European youths and adults between the ages of 18 and 40 after a near 10 year hiatus. One hundred openings are available for the program. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has commissioned the China Youth Corps to organize two workshops from July 28 to Aug. 10 and between Aug. 18 and Aug. 31 in Taipei to give the participants a better understanding of Taiwanese. Anne Hung (洪慧珠), director-general of the ministry? Department of European Affairs, said the program aims to deepen the European youths?understanding of Taiwan and to increase interaction among young people on both sides.
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:
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
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