DIPLOMACY
Computer glitch snares AIT
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) was forced to suspend its visa application service yesterday morning because of a communication problem between its computer system in Taipei and that in Washington, AIT spokesperson Sheila Paskman said. After the problem was fixed at about 1pm, normal service was resumed, said Paskman, adding that about 300 to 400 people were affected. She said people affected by the suspension could send the AIT an e-mail to reschedule their visa interview appointments at visaniv-ait@state.gov, in case they have emergency cases and have to go to the US in a week.
POLITICS
Chen column given approval
Taipei Prison said yesterday it had given the green light to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to publish his first political column from behind bars. Chen was allowed to send his writing to a magazine after prison authorities found no violation of disciplinary rules, said Taipei Prison spokesman, who declined to comment on the content and amount of the articles. Chen’s first column, which recalled his trip to an island in the disputed South China Sea while he was president, was due to appear today in the Chinese-language Next Magazine, its publisher said. The prison’s decision came after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said last week in an interview with the Chinese-language Apple Daily that Chen should be allowed to write the columns. Chen is serving a 17-year term for corruption and money laundering. He has called the legal action against him a vendetta carried out by Ma’s government in retaliation for his pro-independence stance while in power.
EDUCATION
Students to monitor vote
Students from National Chiao Tung University organized an “election convention group” yesterday to monitor January’s presidential election. Members of the group, as first-time voters, hope to ensure that the election is “clean and non-violent.” The group called for candidates and campaign workers to refrain from electioneering shenanigans, saying the public was sick of mudslinging, off-topic remarks, political subterfuge, vote-buying, violence and street protests. Such negative, undemocratic actions have caused the public, especially students, to become disillusioned with elections, the group said.
DIPLOMACY
Germany honors local leader
The German Institute in Taipei has decided to confer the order of the Federal Republic of Germany on Charlotte Han (韓宜靜), president of the Taipei-based Sino-German Cultural and Economic Association, Germany’s liaison office said in a statement yesterday. Institute -Director-General Birgitt Ory will award Han the Federal Cross of Merit, Germany’s only order of merit, at a ceremony today in recognition of her long-term volunteer work aimed at boosting bilateral cultural relations, the statement said. Han, a lecturer at Fu Jen Catholic University, is the second Taiwanese to be awarded the order, following former Grand Justice Tai Tung-hsiung (戴東雄), who received the honor in 2004. “In addition to her daily job as a teacher of German in high schools and universities, she also initiated school partnerships, supported partner school programs of the German Foreign Office, organized festivities, German clubs, exchange visits and promoted a wide range of exchange projects,” the statement 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
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