■ TRANSPORT
New rules on exhaust pipes
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications said it would amend a clause of the Road Safety Traffic Rules (道路安全交通規則) to require that exhaust pipes on motorcycles point downwards. Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯), deputy director of the Ministry’s Department of Railways and Highways, said many people had complained about exposure to exhaust fumes when waiting behind motorcycles with modified exhaust pipes that point upwards. The measure could take effect by the end of September if the department finishes necessary procedures without further deliberation at the Legislative Yuan, he said. Police are also authorized to stop motorcyclists who violate the rule. Violators could be fined between NT$900 and NT$1,000.
■ CRIME
Youths soft on crime: poll
About a quarter of the nation’s junior high school students tend to turn a blind eye to cheating or stealing by their peers, a study released yesterday said. The study, conducted by the non-profit Champions Education Association on 9,520 students at junior high schools across the country between August last year and March, showed that the majority of students knew it was wrong to cheat in exams or steal other people’s belongings. However, only 73 percent said they would take action if they caught classmates cheating during exams, while 25 percent said they would ignore the matter. A similar trend was also found when students were asked what they would do if their classmates stole something. The study showed that 16.2 percent of respondents would tolerate such behavior if a close friend stole something.
■ POLITICS
Chiu Yi cleared of slander
The Taiwan High Court on Tuesday ruled that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) was not guilty of slander for calling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuan Pi-ling (管碧玲) an “ugly woman.” The court overturned a district court ruling and said Chiu was not guilty because it did not find that Chiu had damaged Kuan’s reputation by calling her “ugly,” adding that Chiu’s personal opinion about Kuan’s outer appearance was unrelated to Kuan’s merit or social status. On Nov. 18, 2005, Kuan and other legislators accused Chiu of making false allegations against other politicians. In response, Chiu said to Kuan, “You are an ugly woman, even by the kindest standards.” Kuan then filed a slander suit against Chiu. In August last year, the Taipei District Court sentenced Chiu to 25 days in jail, or a fine of NT$22,500.
■ WEATHER
Tropical storm approaches
Another storm is poised to strike Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Tropical storm Nangka, the Malaysian name for jackfruit, formed over the Philippines on Tuesday. The weather bureau said Nangka’s outer rim would affect Taiwan from tomorrow at the earliest. As of 8am yesterday, Nangka was located more than 1,000km south of Taiwan, moving in a westerly direction toward the South China Sea at a speed of 23kph, the bureau said. The storm system is expected to turn north toward Taiwan after it reaches the South China Sea area. Meanwhile, hot weather was expected to persist today, the bureau said, with temperatures reaching 33°C in eastern and southeastern parts of the country, 32°C in the north and south and 31°C in central Taiwan. Matsu Island and the western and northeastern parts of Taiwan proper were expected to experience occasional showers or thundershowers over the next several days, the bureau 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