DIPLOMACY
Kiribati diet survey planned
Three Fu Jen Catholic University students are visiting Kiribati to survey dietary habits there as part of a nutrition improvement program in the Pacific nation, the International Cooperation and Development Fund said. The students from the university’s nutritional science department will be in Kiribati from tomorrow to Aug. 27 to conduct the survey, the fund said. The survey’s results will be used to help improve the health of Kiribatians, including encouraging them to embrace more balanced diets and combat obesity and diabetes. Founded in 1996, the fund sends volunteers to many countries to help carry out foreign aid programs and also offers humanitarian assistance and aid in the event of natural disasters or international refugee crises.
CULTURE
SE Asia initiative launched
The Ministry of Culture has launched an initiative to encourage more interaction between Taiwanese and people in Southeast Asia. The Emerald Initiative aims to increase Taiwanese understanding of the region’s cultures, histories and social development, the ministry said. Under the program, organizations will be encouraged to invite Southeast Asian professionals for various activities, including exhibitions, to perform or write, help preserve cultural assets, to conduct fieldwork and research, make news reports and films, and engage in community development. The program offers grants of up to NT$500,000 (US$16,700) for each cultural exchange and collaborative project chosen by the ministry. Southeast Asian visitors will be able to stay for up to six months. The ministry said it is also aiming to increase artist exchanges with countries in the region and to help Taiwanese publishers sell more Chinese-language books.
NATIONAL DEFENSE
Fighter overshoots runway
An air force fighter jet overshot the runway at a base in Greater Tainan yesterday, but the pilot was unhurt and there were no casualties in the incident, officials said. The AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-kuo, also known as an Indigenous Defense Fighter, was coming in to land at 9:51am when it overshot the runway and landed in a grassy area, officials said. The flight was part of a regular training session, the military said, denying speculation that the pilot had been rehearsing for an air show on Saturday. The air force gave no cause for the accident, saying only that it would repair the damage to the fighter.
SOCIETY
Birth statistics released
Women in Taiwan last year gave birth to their first child at an average age of 30.1, 3.2 years older than women a decade ago, who averaged 26.9 years of age at the time of their first child, government statistics released yesterday show. The total fertility rate last year was 1.3 births per woman, up from a low of 0.9 births recorded in 2010, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said. It said the increase was mainly attributed to a preference to have children in the Year of the Dragon, considered the luckiest of the Chinese lunar years. A total of 229,000 babies were born last year, up 16.7 percent from the previous year, the agency said. Nevertheless, Taiwan’s fertility rate was still one of the lowest in the world last year. It was higher than that of Singapore and South Korea, which had 1.2 births per woman, but lower than Japan’s 1.4 and China’s 1.5 births. The number of babies born in the first half of this year, the Year of the Snake, fell 6.8 percent from the same period of last year, the DGBAS said.
SPORTS
Hsinchu hosts Superman run
Thousands of runners are expected to participate in a new, Superman-themed road race in Hsinchu on Double Ten National Day in October. The 2013 Super Run, sponsored by the Hsinchu City Government and organized by the Chang Yih Foundation, will see runners clad in the cartoon superhero’s red-and-blue tights and cape when they hit the road. The run, part of the Hsinchu Art and Sport Festival, will include a 10km race open to a maximum of 2,500 runners and a 3km fun run for 1,500 runners. Participants in the fun run must wear a Superman outfit. The superhero was chosen as an icon because of his image as an enforcer of justice and his speed, the foundation said yesterday. Online registration for both races begins today.
TRAVEL
CAL to fly to Busan
China Airlines (CAL) announced yesterday that it would launch direct flights between Taiwan Taoyuan International Aiport and Busan, South Korea, next month. CAL will operate one flight in each direction on every day except for Friday, all on Boeing 737-800 aircraft, airline executive John Chang (張炯滄) said. At just over two hours, direct flights will reduce time and hassle for passengers between the southern part of South Korea and Taiwan by removing the need to transfer in Seoul, about 300km to the north of Busan. The Busan flights are to bring the airline’s total flights to South Korea to 27 per week, including 11 flights from Taoyuan to Incheon, seven between Greater Kaohsiung and Incheon, and three between Taipei International Airport (Songshan) and Gimpo, Chang said. The airline also partners with Korean Air for 14 jointly operated flights a week between Taoyuan and Incheon.
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