■ ENERGY
Agency gets new director
The Institute of Nuclear Energy Research named a new director yesterday. Yeh Taun-ran (葉陶然) was promoted from within the agency's ranks, Atomic Energy Council Minister Su Shian-Jang (蘇獻章) said. Su praised former institute director Lin Li-fu (林立夫) for his contribution and said that during Lin's three-year term, the agency had repeatedly received honors from the National Science Council and the Cabinet. The minister urged the institute to continue to strive for excellence and to meet demands for nuclear energy.
■ DIPLOMACY
US concerned about route
The US government has expressed concern over China's proposal for a flight path close to the median of the Taiwan Strait, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) said yesterday. Taiwan had informed Washington that Beijing was planning the route and warned it pose a threat to national security. "The US and other countries have expressed concern over the matter to the International Civil Aviation Organization," Yeh told a routine press conference. The route is a highly sensitive issue and is being handled by the National Security Agency, the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the Ministry of National Defense and the Mainland Affairs Council, Yeh said.
■ POLITICS
Russia against referendum
Russia is "concerned" about the nation's proposed referendum on whether the government should apply to join the UN using the name "Taiwan," its foreign ministry in Moscow said late on Monday, warning such a move risked destabilizing the region. "We are concerned that such a referendum, and in particular the interpretation of its results, would risk seriously destabilizing the situation in the region," the ministry said in a statement. "We believe Taiwan is an integral part of China ... Being a strategic partner of China, Russia states its opposition to Taiwan's adherence to international organizations. Only sovereign states can be members of these," it said. "We believe that the referendum proposed by the Taiwanese authorities is a dangerous political game ... Activities intended to increase Taiwan's sovereignty are absolutely unacceptable for Russia."
■ POLITICS
Lin calls for Ma boycott
Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) yesterday called on the public not to vote for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) if he refuses to support amendments to the Referendum Law (公投法). Lin fell short of endorsing DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), however, saying that he hoped he would not need to stump for the DPP since he is no longer a party member. Lin, who also urged the public to boycott the KMT and its legislative candidates, said he would stop his call if the KMT agrees to amend the Referendum Law before the elections. Meanwhile, the Nuke-4 Referendum Initiative Association placed a half-page advertisement in yesterday's edition of the Chinese-language China Times, calling on voters to boycott the KMT in the upcoming elections and arguing that political parties that oppose amendments to the Referendum Law do not deserve support.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Human tree planned
Kaohsiung City plans to mobilize 50,000 people to form a human Christmas tree to welcome Christmas without cutting trees, the Kaohsiung City Government said yesterday. On Saturday evening, 50,000 residents will gather on Shidai Avenue in Kaohsiung to form the shape of a giant Christmas tree, Deputy Mayor Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said. The participants will hold up flashlights, fluorescent sticks and cellphones so that cameramen can photograph the human Christmas tree from a helicopter, he said.
■ BIOLOGY
Substances found in coral
Marine biologists have discovered several natural antimicrobial substances in a coral species endemic to Taiwan and expect to apply them in various medical treatments, sources at the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Fengkang, Pingtung County said yesterday. The project, the result of collaboration between the museum and two universities, spotted six sesquiterpenoid chemical compounds, dubbed rumphellolides A to F, in the coral species Rumphella antipathies, according to Sung Ping-jyun (宋秉鈞), the project leader and an associate research fellow at the museum. Sung noted that every coral species is capable of producing 20 to 30 natural chemical compounds, and that there is a long-standing research question concerning how the possible applications of each substance might be identified. Currently, Sung said, the six newly discovered substances are known to have antimicrobial effects, which can be helpful in terms of treatment, anti-inflammation and pain-killing drug development, the containment of bacteria and viruses, or production of cosmetics.
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