■ TRAVEL
Cops send sidewalk warning
The Taipei City Police Department warned motorcyclists yesterday to stay off the sidewalks or risk fines of at least NT$600. As part of the warning, the department released statistics showing the results of police efforts to clamp down on the offense between January and last month. The figures showed that 22,593 motorcyclists were ticketed for riding on the sidewalks during the eight-month period, up from 4,783 in the same period last year. The 10 roads in the city that saw the most offenders included Keelung Rd Sec. 2, Jihe Rd, Minsheng E Rd Sec. 5, Zhongxiao E Rd Sec. 4, Zhongshan N Rd Sec. 5, Dunhua N Rd, Zhongzheng Rd, Zhonghua Rd Sec. 1, Bade Rd Sec. 4 and Jiuzong Rd Sec. 1, the statistics showed.
■ AGRICULTURE
Seed testing re-accredited
The Council of Agriculture's Seed Testing Laboratory has obtained a certificate of re-accreditation from the International Seed Testing Association in recognition of its competence, a council official said yesterday. The re-accreditation represents the association's extended authorization for the laboratory to issue certificates for domestic seed testing on behalf of the association, the official said. Based in Switzerland and founded in 1924, the association aims to develop and establish standard procedures in the field of seed testing. Accreditation issued by the association is valid for three years and a re-assessment of a member's competence is required before re-accreditation is granted, the official said.
■ HEALTH
Free flu shots available
The Department of Health will provide free flu inoculations for groups at high risk of infection starting on Monday to prepare for this winter's flu season, an official said yesterday. Deputy director-general of the department's Center for Disease Control Chou Chih-hao (周志浩) said the targeted groups are those aged 65 and over, children aged between six months and two years, children enrolled in the first and second years of elementary school, healthcare and quarantine workers and workers in the poultry and livestock industry. Chou said the center has procured 2.37 million doses of flu vaccine for adults and 320,000 doses for children to cope with this year's demand. Chou urged those eligible for priority inoculations to receive the shots as soon as possible at designated medical institutions.
■ IMMIGRATION
Absconders on the rise
The number of Chinese crew working aboard Taiwanese fishing boats who have absconded has increased, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday. Officials of the council's Fisheries Administration said that as of Tuesday, 337 Chinese crewmen had run away from their posts, of which 187 had been arrested, while 150 were still on the run. The officials made the remarks while reporting to the Mainland Affairs Council on problems encountered in managing Chinese crewmen. They noted that from January to Sept. 25, the number of absconding Chinese crewmen had reached 48 and that the counties of Ilan and Taipei had reported the most runaways at 32, most of whom were from Fujian Province. To curb further runaways, the Fisheries Administration has asked local governments to step up management. If necessary, the Cabinet will consider suspending the hiring of additional Chinese crewmen until the situation improves, officials said.
■ HEALTH
Birdwatchers told to beware
The Department of Health urged birdwatchers not to venture too close to their subjects during the autumn and winter bird-watching season. Chou Chih-hao (周志浩), deputy director of the department's Centers for Disease Control, said that Taiwan has had no reported case of humans being infected with the H5N1 virus, a virulent strain of avian flu. But as such cases have continued to be reported in Indonesia and Vietnam, the public should be on their guard, Chou said. He said that the Council of Agriculture has begun intensively monitoring migratory birds to check for avian flu. The council has not found any cases of migratory birds being infected with avian flu and the "situation seems to be so far so good," Chou said.
■ CRIME
Police bust gambling ring
The criminal investigation division of the Kaohsiung Police Bureau said yesterday it had busted a baseball gambling ring and arrested its leader and eight members. A police spokesman said that agents from the criminal investigation division had raided 12 betting outlets in Kaohsiung City, Kaohsiung County and neighboring Pingtung County on Wednesday. Police arrested the ring leader and eight accomplices, who had accepted bets on the results of local baseball games. The members of the ring had netted profits totaling nearly NT$100 million (US$3.04 million) over the past six months, the spokesman said. Police confiscated seven desktop computers, six laptops, 20 telephones and NT$490,000 in cash. The accused would be charged with gambling and organized crime at Kaohsiung District Court, the spokesman 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