ENVIRONMENT
Carbon measuring launched
Taiwan launched its first carbon footprint calculation scheme for the aviation industry yesterday in an effort to prepare for the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, which will take effect next year. The program is designed to help airports, airlines and ground service companies better understand their carbon emissions amid increasing concern over global warming, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said. In the preliminary stage of the program, the CAA plans to monitor flights to and from Magong Airport in Penghu to keep a record of their greenhouse gas emissions. The calculations would follow a British Standards Institution-approved procedure, CAA Director-General Yin Chen-pong (尹承蓬) said. The agency will take a variety of measures to cut down on an assumed consumption of 52kg of carbon dioxide per passenger per one-way flight, Yin said, adding that these could include introducing new aircraft and hybrid vehicles for ground services.
HEALTH
Group releases sinus book
A medical organization released a handbook on sinus infections yesterday, urging people to download a free version online. Although one in every four Taiwanese is estimated to have experienced some degree of sinus infection, not many understand its causes and treatments, Fang Sheen-yie (方深毅) of the Taiwan Rhinology Society said. Most sinus infections are treated with medication — surgery is only advised for people with complications that are difficult to treat, said Huang Hung-meng (黃弘孟), deputy superintendent at Taipei City Hospital’s Yangming branch. The Chinese-language handbook, presented in a -question-and-answer format, is available for download on the organization’s Web site and will be distributed for free at major hospitals nationwide.
ELECTIONS
Crackdown on bets pledged
Prosecutor-General Huang Shyh-ming (黃世銘) yesterday pledged to crack down on betting on the outcome of the presidential election. Huang made the pledge as reports were emerging that vote-related gambling was taking place in the less-policed central and southern regions. “I’ve ordered prosecutors to do everything they can to battle illegal operations linked to the elections. Clean elections are our goal,” he said. Huang said the authorities have received 294 reports of suspected gambling and other economic crimes linked to the election. There is growing concern that gambling might fuel election violence, because people who have placed large bets on one side winning may seek to harm candidates to tilt the result in their favor.
ENTERTAINMENT
Hsu Hua-feng passes away
Actress Hsu Hua-feng (徐華鳳) passed away in Greater Taichung yesterday after battling stomach cancer for a number of years. She was 41. According to Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Hsu checked in on Thursday last week and died early yesterday of organ failure. Her husband was at her bedside. Hsu was diagnosed with having stage-three cancer three years ago and later had her stomach removed. At one time, she seemed to have her cancer in control and married her longtime boyfriend in Bali, Indonesia, in 2009. Despite long and painful cancer treatments, Hsu remained optimistic and shared her experiences of fighting cancer with the public. She also expressed her wish to be pregnant and become a mother. Hsu appeared in numerous TV dramas, including Meteor Garden (流星花園).
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