■ Politics
Hsieh's bid `no secret'
A group of Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers close to former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday that Hsieh's intention to run in the 2008 presidential election was an open secret. The lawmakers made the remarks following reports in yesterday's evening newspapers that said Hsieh had declared that he would run in the election. The reports said that Hsieh revealed his intentions when talking with Japanese correspondents in Taiwan on Wednesday. "Hsieh had discussed his willingness [to run for president] with certain lawmakers, and we all encouraged him to do so," said Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅), convener of the Welfare State Alliance, a DPP faction.
■ Education
MOE denies underinvesting
The Ministry of Education yesterday dismissed as "mistaken" a local media report which claims that the government is investing too little in education. Deputy Minister of Education Wu Tsai-shun (吳財順) said the country has increased spending on education every year and that education spending as a percentage of government annual expenditure is also higher than that of Japan, South Korea and the US. Wu pointed out that education spending accounted for 19.76 percent of the government's expenditures in 2002, compared with 10.6 percent in Japan, 12.7 percent in Britain, 15.2 percent in the US and 17 percent in South Korea. In the same year, Taiwan's education spending as a percentage of GDP stood at 4.6 percent, which was also higher than 2 percent in China, 3.5 percent in Japan, 4.2 percent in South Korea, and 4.4 percent in Australia and Germany, Wu noted.
■ Health
More women smoking
While the percentage of adult female smokers has risen to 4.54 percent, the smoking rate among junior high school girls is following closely behind at 3 percent, according to the results of surveys recently released by the Department of Health (DOH). The surveys, conducted by the DOH Bureau of Health Promotion, include one carried out last year among more than 20,000 students from over 200 junior high schools nationwide. The results were made public during an international conference on "women and tobacco hazards prevention" held in Taipei. The survey shows that among junior high students aged between 13 and 15, 5.74 percent are smokers, with the rates standing at approximately 3 percent among girls and 7 percent among boys.
■ Politics
Ma makes dreams come true
What kind of wish would a woman make if Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was the one who could make it come true? In celebration of Women's Day, the Women's Department of the KMT has created a "women's wishing well" on the party's Web site. Women visiting the site are invited to make a wish, with one lucky participant being chosen to have her dream come true -- with Ma's help -- on March 8. So far, more than 400 wishes have been made, including requests for the KMT chairman to help bathe a baby or dance cheek-to-cheek. In response to the promotion, Ma said he would try his best to fulfill the women's dreams. "I have bathed babies in the past. Although it was 20 years ago, I think I can still do it," he said yesterday at Taipei City Hall. The deadline for entries is this Monday. For more information, visit www.kmt.org.tw/event/950301/index.html.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
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