■DIPLOMACY
Kadeer not a terrorist: Ma
Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer is not a terrorist, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was quoted as saying in an interview with the Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday. Ma was asked if Kadeer, who lives in exile in the US, was a terrorist, to which Ma answered: “No.” He did not elaborate. Kadeer, branded a “criminal” in Beijing, has become a controversial figure in Taiwan after the Ma government last month said it would not allow Kadeer to visit Taiwan, saying the World Uyghur Congress that she leads has close links to a terrorist organization. Kadeer has denied the allegation.
■HEALTH
DOH drafts premium hike
The Department of Health (DOH) yesterday unveiled a draft plan to raise the income ceiling on which health insurance premiums are calculated, which is expected to affect more than 80,000 high income earners. The plan, which is expected to boost the National Health Insurance system’s annual revenue by NT$1.3 billion (US$40.1 million), is set to be implemented next year after it is approved by the Executive Yuan, said Chu Tung-kuang (曲同光), deputy convener of a DOH panel overseeing the insurance program. Under the plan, the current monthly ceiling of NT$131,700 will be raised to NT$212,000, and 13 new income tiers will be created. That means, for example, that those making more than NT$212,000 per month will see their premium rise by NT$3,654 per month, based on the existing premium rate of 4.55 percent. Because employees are only required to contribute 30 percent of the premium, they will only have to pay an additional NT$1,096 per month, while their employers, who contribute 60 percent, will have to pay an additional NT$2,192 per month per employee in this income group.
■ECONOMY
Ma chairs economic talks
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Thursday held his first regular high-level economic meeting as he tried to guide the nation out of its worst crisis in decades, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday. “The president has made the monthly meeting a routine that will provide a mechanism for opinion exchanges,” Wang said. “It shows he’d like to live up to expectations from the public and enhance his role in leading economic development,” Wang said. He declined to disclose what issues were covered in the meeting, but the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday that those present voiced special concern over the sagging job market. The jobless rate last month stood at 6.04 percent, just below the all-time record of 6.13 percent in August.
■HEALTH
Adimmune reports progress
Taiwanese may soon get shots of a locally produced A(H1N1) vaccine, as a mid-term report on its initial effects in protecting adults against the new flu virus was released yesterday. Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control, said that based on a mid-term assessment of human clinical trials submitted by Adimmune Corp (國光生技) a day earlier, the Department of Health (DOH) was leaning toward a conclusion that adults would need only one dose of the vaccine produced by the company. Chou added, however, that the DOH would only reach a conclusion after a screening committee has reviewed all the data contained in the assessment report. Meanwhile, the dose of Adimmune vaccine for children younger than nine years old will be determined after test results on children are completed.
■MEDICINE
Team treats Paraguayans
A medical team assembled by Taiwan’s International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) has won acclaim in Paraguay for performing 15 artificial joint replacement procedures in the past week on Paraguayan patients. Paraguay’s Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare told a press conference on Thursday that the team also shared its expertise with medical staff at the hospital where it worked. The ICDF medical team was composed of four orthopedic and cardiology specialists and two nurses. They arrived in Asuncion on Oct. 13 and performed the 15 joint replacement surgeries in less than 10 days.
■TRANSPORT
Bill allows water on MRT
The Legislative Yuan is screening a law amendment that would allow passengers on mass rapid transit (MRT) systems to drink water on the trains. The draft amendment to the Mass Rapid Transit Act (大眾捷運法) was presented yesterday to the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which will later move it to the legislative floor for approval if it passes the first screening. The draft amendment does not seek to lift the ban on food or other drinks on MRT trains, only on drinking water. The bill also proposed that passengers be allowed to carry caged animals on the trains.
■AGRICULTURE
Grouper study nets award
Yang Hui-lang (楊惠郎), a professor at National Cheng Kung University, has won this year’s prize in agricultural sciences presented by the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS). Yang won the prize for his outstanding achievements in the research and development of immunology, oral vaccines and prevention of viral infections in grouper aquaculture, the university spokesman said. TWAS is an international organization based in Trieste, Italy, that promotes scientific excellence for sustainable development in developing countries around the world.
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