TRANSPORT
Bus accident injures 23
A shuttle bus carrying 33 people to a tourist destination in Yanmingshan National Park yesterday skidded and rolled, injuring 23 passengers. The No. 108 shuttle bus, which stops along destinations on the mountain, skidded at about 2:26pm, just before arriving in the Lengshuikeng (冷水坑) hot springs area, its terminal stop. The Taipei City Government Department of Transportation said all the injured passengers sustained grazes, with one suffering a fractured humerus, possibly requiring surgery. All the injured passengers were hospitalized. Nineteen of the injured passengers were foreigners, including six Malaysians, four Hong Kongers, two Filipinos, two Singaporeans, two Americans and three Chinese. No passengers were in a critical condition, the department said. A preliminary investigation by the police linked the accident to malfunctioning brakes.
TOURISM
Lighthouse opens to public
The century-old Fuguijiao Lighthouse (富貴角) on the nation’s northernmost point was opened to the public yesterday, with visitors to the lighthouse receiving a stamped souvenir certificate featuring the lighthouse. The 14.3m-tall lighthouse was built by Japanese for the construction of a submarine cable between Taiwan and Japan, and also to serve as a navigation aid. In 1962, the tower was renovated into an octagonal building and painted black and white. To promote the lighthouse as a tourist destination in the Guanyinshan National Scenic Area, the Tourism Bureau has sought to add more recreational facilities in neighboring areas. Several abandoned barracks nearby have been converted into an art center. The Tourism Bureau suggested that visitors can enjoy artistic programs in the art center, taste marine delicacies in the nearby Fuji Fishing Port (富基), and tour the unique lighthouse.
EDUCATION
Delayed school start backed
More than 90 percent of parents are in favor of delaying school start times so that children can get more sleep, according to the results of a survey released by Commonwealth Parenting magazine. Half of those in favor of the delay believe that getting enough sleep would keep children in good spirits and help them perform better academically. However, about 10 percent of parents did not support delaying school start times, saying that it would encourage children to go to bed later. The survey was conducted online between July 28 and Aug. 7, involving 1,996 parents. According to a study conducted in 2010 by the Sleep Center at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, sixth-graders get an average of 8.7 hours of sleep on weekdays. However, senior-high school students get an average of 6.8 hours of sleep, far less than the US National Sleep Foundation’s recommendation of eight to 10 hours.
NATIONAL DEFENSE
Spy leader to be sentenced
Former People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officer Zheng Xiaojiang (鎮小江) and the spy ring he recruited, who were indicted by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for violating the National Security Act (國家安全法), are to be sentenced on Tuesday. After months of investigations, the office found that Zhen came to Taiwan in the name of sightseeing, but had actually sought to develop a network for espionage. Zhen was found to have recruited, among others, retired army major general Hsu Nai-chuan (許乃權), who had run for the Kinmen County commissioner’s office, but failed, and retired air force colonel Chou Chih-li (周自立).
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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:
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
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