BUSINESS
Defense show to open
The Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition 2011 will be held from tomorrow through Sunday at the Taipei World Trade Center as part of government effort to generate more business in the field, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said yesterday. About 90 exhibitors from around the world have registered to display aerospace and military products at 689 booths at the biennial trade show, the council’s Web site showed. Exhibitors include US defense contractor Raytheon, Lockheed Martin Corp, Taiwan’s state-run Aerospace Industrial Development Corp and unmanned aerial system specialist Carbon-Based Technology. The show is aimed at generating NT$1 billion (US$34.4 million) in deals, TAITRA said. One of the highlights of the show this year will be the Pavilion of National Defense, at which more than 160 products will be on display, including war robots and military computers that can be jointly developed by the military and private sector.
POLITICS
New officials take office
Department of Education Commissioner Ding Ya-wen (丁亞雯) and Taipei City Deputy Secretary-General Chang Pei-yi (張培義) assumed office yesterday, promising to spare no efforts in assisting Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) with city affairs. Ding took over from Kang Tzong-huu (康宗虎), who resigned late last month to take responsibility for the controversy surrounding the tri-city high school entrance exam policy. A veteran educator with more than 30 years of experience, Ding said she would promote diverse education and a multiple-school entrance mechanism, but declined to say if the city would continue the controversial exam policy next year. “We will seek advice from students, parents and experts before making a final decision,” she said. Chang, former deputy commissioner of the city’s Department of Rapid Transit Systems, was promoted after the city increased the number of deputy chiefs of its secretariat to three.
SAFETY
Contaminated drinks found
About 6.3 percent of drinks and ice products in Taipei City failed a safety test because of high levels of bacteria, the city’s Department of Health said on Monday. Nine of the 144 samples tested were found to be contaminated with E. coli, said Chen Li-chi (陳立奇), head of the Food and Drug Division. The department said although most strains of E. coli were harmless, high levels of the bacteria in food indicate poor sanitation and contamination during the production process. It advised consumers to check the sanitary conditions at shops to see if there are insects and whether the ingredient containers are properly covered, it said. In a second round of drink shop inspections this summer, the department tested 50 ice cube samples, 36 drinks, 17 sorbets, 18 shaved ice dishes and 23 flavorings. Chen said shops that failed the tests would be given a grace period to improve and could be fined NT$30,000 to NT$150,000 if they fall below standards in follow-up tests.
DIPLOMACY
Taiwan donates laptops
Taiwan has given 2,400 laptops to St Kitts and Nevis. Kittian Prime Minister Denzil Douglas said the laptops would be distributed to high school students at the start of the new school year next month. Another 2,400 laptops will be given to students later in the year. Douglas accepted the computers from Ambassador Miguel Tsao (曹立傑) in the country’s capital, Basseterre, on Monday.
TRANSPORTATION
Taipei overhauls route maps
The Taipei Public Transportation Office announced yesterday that it had overhauled route maps on a city bus route in response to passenger complaints and would assess the public’s reaction to the overhaul before changing other signs in the city’s bus network. The office said that in surveys by the Taipei Joint Bus System in 2009 and last year, commuters had complained about the tiny fonts used for written information on maps posted in buses, the lack of route maps and the lack of signs in English explaining how to pay bus fares. To provide better service, the office and bus agencies designed new maps on a trial basis for bus route 205, with larger fonts and colors to show how fares should be paid.
SOCIETY
Breastfeeding law enforced
Public venues that fail to provide breastfeeding rooms will soon be subject to fines, the Department of Health said. A law mandating that breastfeeding rooms be placed in public locations that was passed in November last year will officially go into effect on Nov. 24. The law requires that all government agencies and state-run enterprises with more than 500m2 of floor space, train stations, airport terminals and transit centers with more than 1,000m2, and department stores with more than 10,000m2 establish designated breastfeeding rooms. The law stipulates that the authorities managing such areas will be subject to fines of NT$6,000 to NT$30,000 if they fail to provide breastfeeding facilities. In addition, women cannot be banned, disturbed or asked to move if they are breastfeeding their babies in public places such as parks, department stores, buses or on the mass rapid transit system, department officials said, adding that violators could be fined up to NT$30,000.
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