CRIMES
DUI violations reach 737
The National Police Agency yesterday reported 737 violations involving drunk driving from Friday to Sunday, after a stiffer penalty was imposed to help curb drunk driving and raise public awareness about road safety this month. The violations included 95 repeat offenders, 34 who refused breathalyzer tests and 282 who were turned over to authorities after testing over 0.55mg on the breathalyzer. Under the new law, the maximum fine for driving under the influence of alcohol was raised to NT$90,000 from NT$60,000. Individuals found guilty of drunk driving two times or more over a period of five years, and those who refuse to take breath alcohol tests are subject to the maximum fine and will have their licenses revoked. A total of 371 people were killed in drunk-driving accidents last year.
SOCIETY
RTI wants your voice
Radio Taiwan International (RTI) yesterday urged listeners around the world to record their voices and submit the audio clips to the station for a campaign that seeks to benefit the visually impaired. MP3 recordings of stories or articles could be made in any of the 13 languages in which the RTI broadcasts, including Chinese, English, Thai and Vietnamese, the government-owned station said. The recordings, each of which should not exceed 10 minutes in length, could be made with the help of any recording devices, the station said, adding that the selected clips would be released in May for visually impaired individuals residing in Taiwan and overseas. The audio files can be submitted to readforlove@rti.org.tw.
AGRICULTURE
Soybean strain developed
The Kaohsiung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station in Greater Kaohsiung recently unveiled a new strain of soybean that it hopes can be sold in local and foreign markets by the end of this year, a researcher said yesterday. “Kaohsiung 12,” nicknamed “Emerald,” a new strain developed this year, but which has not been genetically modified, boasts higher yields and bigger beans, an associate researcher at the station said. The new strain can yield at least 25 percent more than the mainstream soybean, “Kaohsiung 9,” making it more competitive globally. Vegetable soybeans, or green soybeans (immature ones in their green pods), are popular exports to Japan. The nation produced about 70,000 tonnes of green soybeans last year, with nearly half going to Japan. Exports of green soybeans reached a record US$71.6 million last year, up 80 percent from about US$40 million five years ago, government statistics showed.
HEALTH
Herb medicine book revised
After years of compilation, the second edition of Herbal Pharmacopoeia will be released on April 1, the Department of Health’s Committee on Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy announced. Building on the 2004 edition, which included 200 species of herbs, the latest edition added 101 items and adopted a more scientific approach to herb examination, it said. The pharmacopoeia is designed to standardize and regulate the use of herbal medicine in Taiwan. The pharmacopoeia was originally named Chinese Herbal Pharmacopoeia (中華中藥典) when it came out in 2004 and renamed Taiwanese Traditional Pharmacopoeia (台灣傳統藥典) in 2005. The latest, second edition has been rechristened Taiwan Herbal Pharmacopoeia (台灣中藥典).
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