POLITICIS
New GIO minister named
Philip Yang (楊永明), a professor in National Taiwan University’s Department of Political Science, will succeed Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) as minister of the Government Information Office (GIO). The handover ceremony is scheduled to take place on Monday, a statement released by the GIO said. Yang resigned as senior advisor to the National Security Council in May last year, a position he had held since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) assumed office in May 2008. Chiang tendered his resignation to Premier Wu Den-yih last week as he prepares to run for a seat in the Legislative Yuan. Chiang was among the list of 40 nominees announced by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for next year’s legislative elections.
CULTURE
Caribbean comes to NTU
A cultural extravaganza featuring the music, cuisine and heritage of the countries of the Caribbean is set to take place today. The event, in its second year and dubbed “Caribbean Callaloo,” has been organized by students from eight Caribbean countries who are studying in Taiwan — Belize, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines — and is supported by students from Latin America and Africa. The audience will be treated to a wide range of performances during the 90 minute program, which will start at 7:30pm at the GIS Convention Center at National Taiwan University, the organizer said. The co-host of the event, Kim Douglas, from Dominica, is pursuing a master’s degree at Soochow University.
EDUCATION
More Indian students sought
Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基) said yesterday he plans to discuss a proposal to boost the number of Indian academics studying for advanced degrees in Taiwan. Wu is currently leading a 62-member delegation to India, and arrived in New Delhi on Thursday. He said similar agreements with other countries could serve as a model. For instance, university lecturers from Vietnam and Thailand who do not hold a masters or doctoral degree can gain one in Taiwan and financial aid is also available. Wu said he wanted to turn the nation into a Southeast Asian education powerhouse during his term as education minister. With the birthrate falling, Wu hopes to encourage more overseas Taiwanese, foreign and Chinese students to study locally and thereby take up university places that would otherwise go empty.
AGRICULTURE
Pineapple exports increase
Exports of pineapples from Pingtung County— the country’s major pineapple producing area — are on the upswing. Green Land Farmers Association chairman Kuo Chih-wei (郭智偉) said. Pingtung County exported 390 tonnes of fresh pineapples to Japan last year, a figure that is expected to nearly double to 725 tonnes this year, he said, adding that the Japan-bound shipments were not interrupted by Japan’s devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Exports to China, another major export outlet, are forecast to top 180 tonnes this year, with 145 tonnes already delivered, Kuo said. Pineapple farmers in Pingtung have a backlog of orders through next year, he added. Export prices average about NT$50 a kilogram, about the same as the domestic price, the Pingtung County Agriculture Department deputy director Yao Chih-wang (姚志旺) 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