20120430 3pm

3PM Intro

Good afternoon. It's time for ICRT news at 3. I'm Mike Woodward.

Taiwan Lawmakers Visit Taiping Island

First, Taiwan news... A group of Taiwan lawmakers flew to the Taiwan-controlled Taiping Island in the South China Sea today for a brief inspection tour. The group was led by ruling KMT lawmaker Lin Yu-fang, who concurrently serves as convener of the Legislative Yuan's Foreign and National Defense Committee. The visit comes amid simmering disputes in the South China Sea ... most recently a recent standoff between armed Chinese and Philippine vessels in the region of the Scarborough Shoal. Defense Minister Gao Hua-zhu today played down the significance of the visit. He called it nothing unusual ... saying the trip was only intended to pay regards to the Republic of China soldiers and coastguard officers stationed there. Taiwan ... along with China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei claim all or part of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea and islands in the area. Taiwan controls the Pratas Islands, the largest island in the entire South China Sea, and Taiping Island, the largest island in the Spratlys. (jm)

Health Chief Concerned Over Reports of Nurse Overwork

Taiwan's health chief is watching closely the problem of nurses being overworked ... following reports of massive overtime accumulated at a Taidong area government hospital. According to the report ... nurses at the Department of Health running Taidong Hospital have accumulated 4,000 days of compensatory time off ... although it remains unclear when they will be able to take the time. Nurses there are quoted as saying they'd be happy to just start having weekends and holidays off ... without worrying about when they might be able to take additional comp time off. Hospital director Zhu Nian-feng concedes the situation is problematic ... and something DOH chief Qiu Wen-da places great importance on. Zhu noted that they have trouble keeping good staff ... saying not a single doctor has worked at the hospital more than ten years. Nurses in Taiwan have of late begun protesting what they consider to be excessive and unhealthy amounts of overtime they are forced to work. (jm)

Clinton China

Two senior members of President Obama's government say they will go ahead with an official visit to China later this week, despite growing speculation that a leading Chinese activist is being sheltered by the US Embassy in Beijing It's been more than a week since Chen Guang-cheng escaped from house arrest. Supporters of the blind campaigner, who has fought against the Chinese government's program of forced sterilization and abortion, say that he is now being protected by US diplomats in the country Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are due to hold talks with Chinese leaders on Thursday. Our Washington Correspondent Simon Marks says the dissident's whereabouts could overshadow their visit.

immigrant rights

Those who support immigrants' rights used the upcoming May Day holiday to hold a rally in Milwaukee to protest crackdowns on migrants. Correspondent Bruce Marcus reports.

weather

Taiwan weather forecast for tonight according to the Central Weather Bureau, showers and thundershowers expected this evening island-wide with the lows tonite north, center and south respectively: 23, 24 and 25. At the moment Taipei is cloudy and 34, Taichung thunderstormy and 33, Gauhsiung rather cloudy and 30.

3PM Outro

That's ICRT News at 3. Thank you for listening. I'm Mike Woodward.