NATIONAL DEFENSE
Warning aircraft returned
Two early warning aircraft that were sent to the US in June last year for upgrades have been returned and will be tested soon, military sources said yesterday. They have been retrofitted with more efficient eight-blade propellers and their radar and surveillance systems have been upgraded. The two aircraft, originally called E-2T, were sold to Taiwan by the US in the 1990s. They were returned to the US in June last year for upgrading and have now been renamed E-2K, military sources said. The aircraft will be put into service within 10 days after completing a series of test flights, the sources said. Two other E-2Ts were sent to the US early last month and are expected to be returned to Taiwan next year. The upgrade program is part of the military’s efforts to update its arsenal under an arms sale deal with the US in October 2008 that included an upgrade of four E-2Ts to the Hawkeye 2000 configuration at a cost of US$2.5 billion.
ENERGY
More investment in power
The government plans to invest an additional NT$130 billion (US$4.28 billion) in smart power grid infrastructure beginning next year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. A digitally enabled power grid that can deliver electricity by using two-way communications will improve the efficiency, quality and reliability of the power supply system, the Bureau of Energy said in a statement. The government expects the smart grid infrastructure to help drive the development of a “smart industry” through the adoption of information and communications technology and automation technology, the bureau said. The ministry said it would hold a forum today to discuss the smart grid strategy.
SOCIETY
Cancer survivors lauded
Being alive is the greatest gift in the world, a group of cancer survivors told an awards ceremony in Taipei yesterday to encourage optimism and persistence in the battle against cancer. “Cancer is nothing to be afraid of, as long as you have an open mind,” said Chiu Mei-hui, a 47-year-old breast cancer patient and one of the 10 award recipients. The prize, awarded annually since 2007 by the Formosa Cancer Foundation, encourages cancer survivors to tell their personal stories. This year, there were more than 100 nominees. Chiu said that after her husband was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2002, she discovered a lump in her right breast that was later found to be a malignant tumor. She said the burden she bears is the motivation that keeps her alive. Chiu, a mother of four, now speaks regularly at seminars, sharing her thoughts on the beauty and essence of life.
CULTURE
Flower contest has winner
A student from the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts won the Flower Generation contest in Chang-hua County, which included a prize of NT$500,000, the organizers announced on Saturday. Chang Yu-shan (張育姍) gave a musical performance using a bamboo flute, gongs and drums to win from a field of 25 finalists in a contest that featured music, dance, design and composition. “I was very nervous and couldn’t sleep before the competition,” the 18-year-old Chang said. She said she planned to use the prize money to buy new instruments and participate in arts festivals next year to promote Changhua’s flower industry. Chang will serve as one of six spokespeople selected to help the county promote its flower industry at home and abroad, Changhua County Commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) 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
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
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