FISHERIES
Pingtung vessel released
A Taiwanese fishing boat, which was detained by a patrol ship from Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in waters south of Yaeyama Islands, Okinawa, was released yesterday after paying a ¥4 million (US$38,900) fine, the Fisheries Agency said yesterday. Chen Jui-ming (陳瑞明), skipper of the Jui Ming Fa, registered in Pingtung County, yesterday admitted that the ship was operating in waters where fishing by Taiwanese vessels is not permitted. The incident occurred 41 nautical miles (76km) east of Ishigaki Island, the agency said, adding that the boat was 17 nautical miles (31.5km) beyond the temporary enforcement line, which was established unilaterally by Taiwan in 2003 to serve as an identification line to guarantee the safety of fishermen in disputed waters.
ENVIRONMENT
Quakes hit east coast
A total of seven earthquakes struck eastern areas of the nation between 12:21pm and 1:16pm yesterday, with the largest registering a magnitude of 4.9, Central Weather Bureau data showed. No casualties were immediately reported. The quakes, ranging between magnitude 3.4 and magnitude 4.9, all hit Hualien County, an earthquake-prone area where the Philippine Sea Plate borders the Eurasian Plate. The strongest tremor was primarily felt in Heping Township (和平), Hualien County, and Nanao Township (南澳), Yilan County, the bureau said. However, quakes were also felt in Hualien City, Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, Sanguang (三光) in Taoyuan County and Deji (德基) in Greater Taichung.
HEALTH
World medical forum likely
The nation is expected to host a World Medical Association (WMA) conference for the first time in 2016, Department of Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) said on Monday. Chiu said the WMA has tentatively decided to stage the 2016 conference in Taiwan, although the plan still needs to be confirmed at a meeting in October. Chiu, who is currently in Geneva, Switzerland, to attend the 66th World Health Assembly, also said that WMA president Cecil Wilson is scheduled to give a speech in Taiwan in August. In her opening address at the Geneva conference, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan (陳馮富珍) mentioned several public health challenges, including SARS, H1N1 and the new H7N9 strain of avian influenza. Chan also raised the importance of achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals, which Chiu said touch on the problem of a graying society that is affecting Taiwan. He said that cities and counties in Taiwan have already worked on becoming “friendly cities for seniors” and have made progress in this area.
AGRICULTURE
New medium devised
A new potting medium made from rice straw has been found to have better water retention capacity than sphagnum moss, which is usually used for growing moth orchids, a researcher said yesterday. “We have turned rice straw, an agricultural waste product, into a useful orchid potting medium,” said Su Po-hsin (蘇博信), an assistant researcher at the Kaohsiung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station. After being shredded, softened and sterilized, the waste rice straw can be mixed with sphagnum moss to make a better potting compound for orchids, Su said. “We can reduce the use of sphagnum moss by three quarters,” he said. Su has applied for a patent for the new potting mix, which can also be made from wheat straw.
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