■ Health
Students at risk of suicide
Ten percent of Taiwanese university students have attempted suicide due to pressure in life and in school, a survey showed yesterday. According to the poll of 3,594 university students by the Taiwan Association of Clinical Psychiatrists, 367 students -- or 10.21 percent -- have attempted suicide in the past year. Among medical students the number of attempted suicides over the past year was around 14 percent, compared with 7.7 percent among students in engineering. The poll showed that 5.33 per cent of those questioned suffer from severe depression. They tend to be cynical, have a low opinion of themselves and have problems with interpersonal relationships. Taiwan has one of the highest suicides rates in Asia. Last year 3,468 Taiwanese killed themselves, averaging about 10 suicides per day, at a rate of 15.31 suicides per every 100,000 people.
■ Society
Folk fest features robots
Several robots are being displayed at a special pavilion at the ongoing 2005 Ilan Children's Folklore and Folkgame Festival, organizers said Saturday. Robots that can do push-ups, sommersaults, or even hip-hop dances are just some of the interesting things that await visitors to the pavilion. To give visitors a better understanding of robots, the pavilion has been divided into many educational sections dedicated to introducing facts regarding robots and the way robots are made, the organizers said. The festival is set to run through Aug. 14.
■ Biology
People want to make love
As Lover's Day approaches next week, a survey released yesterrday said that most young lovers in Taiwan would -- unsurprisingly -- like to celebrate the day by making love. In an online poll, the Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) asked young people what they most wanted to do on Lovers' Day, which falls on Aug. 11 this year. The poll gave four choices: a romantic dinner, a walk, making love, or all three. Among the 504 respondents, 7 percent wanted a romantic dinner with their lovers, 15 percent opted for a walk, 44 percent wanted to make love and 33 per cent wanted to do all three.
■ Diplomacy
Pacheco to visit
Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco de la Espriella, at the head of a 14-member delegation, is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan Aug. 12 for a six-day state visit, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). At the invitation of the ROC government, Pacheco will attend the inauguration of the Democratic Pacific Union initiated by Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), and sign a joint comunique with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Pacheco first visited Taiwan in October 2002 to participate in the ROC's national day celebrations in his capacity as the Costa Rican president. He visited again in August 2003 to attend the summit of heads of state of the ROC and its Central American allies. Pacheco's August visit will be his third to Taiwan, which reflects the cordial relations between the two countries, a MOFA official said. Pacheco's delegation will include Costa Rican Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar, Minister of Foreign Trade Manual Gonzalez and several members of the Legislative Assembly.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
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