■ENVIRONMENT
Kaohsiung's air gets worse
Air pollution got worse in Kaohsiung last month, with the smoke stacks of factories in the neighboring counties and cities of Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan blamed for fouling the air, city officials said yesterday. Quoting an Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) report on air quality in the Kaohsiung and Pingtung area, officials from the city's Department of Environmental Protection indicated that the frequency of poor air quality in Kaohsiung City stood at 12.5 percent last month, meaning that there were four or five days when air quality in the city was significantly below standard. That percentage surpassed the single-month average of the first 10 months by 2.5 times, the officials said, noting they believe the deteriorating air quality was caused by emissions of waste gas from petrochemical factories in Yunlin County's Mailiao Township (麥寮). In the presence of sunshine certain waste gases change into harmful ozone, which the wind blows away from the area where it is produced, said department Director Hsiao Yu-cheng (蕭裕正).
■ EDUCATION
Study in US grows
The number of Taiwanese students enrolled at US colleges and universities grew by 4.4 percent last year, making the country the fifth largest source of foreign students in the US, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said yesterday. The AIT issued a statement saying that a new annual report published by the Institute of International Education with support from the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs indicated that the number of Taiwan students increased to 29,094 last year, overtaking Canada with 28,280 students.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS