■ TECHNOLOGY
Invention show planned
The 2007 Taipei International Invention Show and Technomart (TIIST) is slated for Sept. 27-30 at the Taipei World Trade Center, a government official said yesterday. According to the official, this year's TIIST, to be sponsored by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Education and the National Science Council, will be larger than last year's event. During the three-day exhibition, a total of 947 standard booths will be set up for individual inventors, invention groups and manufacturers from Europe, America and Asia to display their most recent inventions, the official said. Entering its third year, the TIIST aims to boost international technology deals, the official said.
■ DIPLOMACY
US group supports WHO bid
The Medical Society of Delaware (MSD) in the US sent a letter on Thursday to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan (陳馮富珍), urging her to support Taiwan's bid to join the international health body. The society's president, Janice Tildon-Burton, said in the letter that Taiwan has made every effort possible in its bids for to join WHO over the past years, but all its efforts have been in vain. The world health regulatory body's exclusion of Taiwan has not only been unfair to the 23 million people of Taiwan, but has also violated WHO founding objectives, the MSD head said. She said that, boasting one of the world's most advanced public health systems, Taiwan has actively participated in international humanitarian assistance efforts, and as such should be admitted into the WHO.
■ AGRICULTURE
Pingtung park goes ahead
The Pingtung Agricultural Biotechnology Park (PABP) is scheduled to open in July following the completion of first-stage factory construction work, a park executive said yesterday. According to PABP Preparatory Office director Chen Chien-pin (陳建斌), the first stage of standard factory construction at the Faifeng Base was completed earlier this month. Chen said that given the enthusiastic response of local and foreign manufacturers, the park administration is working towards a second-stage factory project at the Taiyuan Base which is expected to begin next February and to be completed in April 2009. The Haifeng Base, located in Changchih Township (長治), will see the development of nine key industries, while the Taiyuan Base, located in Fangliao Township (枋寮), will be a fish-breeding zone, Chen said.
■ PUBLIC SAFETY
Fire breaks out near Keelung
A fire that broke out on Pengjia Islet (彭佳嶼) off Keelung around 12pm on Saturday and lasted for 11 hours damaged an estimated 40 hectares of land -- an area equivalent to one-third of the small island, fire department officials said yesterday. The cause of the fire is still unclear, but after a preliminary investigation, experts have not ruled out the possibility that high-temperature exhaust from low-flying military aircraft crossing the area caused the fire. Discarded cigarettes could also have been the cause, Keelung City officials said. The fire department was at the scene shortly after receiving an emergency call, but because of insufficient water supplies, the fire spread very quickly, the officials said. The fire was brought under control after nearly 11 hours with assistance from the national airborne emergency relief center.
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