TRANSPORT
Tunnel minimum raised
The minimum speed in the Hsuehshan Tunnel (雪山隧道) is to be raised from 60kph to 70kph on Wednesday next week in an effort to ease traffic congestion, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said on Tuesday. Slow driving is the cause of the constant traffic jams in the tunnel, which connects New Taipei City and Yilan County, hence the decision to increase the minimum speed, the ministry said. Penalties for drivers who ignore the new rule will would not be introduced until April to allow time for people to get used to the change, the ministry said. Traffic cameras are to be placed every 1.6km along the 12.9km tunnel to record violations, such as drivers disregarding the speed limits, changing lanes or tailgating, the National Freeway Bureau said. The fine for disregarding the speed limit would be NT$3,000 each time a violation is recorded on camera, the bureau said.
DIPLOMACY
Students to perform at event
Students from the nation’s diplomatic allies in Latin America and the Caribbean are to perform on May 6 at a cultural event organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote exchanges, understanding and friendship. The event is aimed at highlighting the customs and culture of Taiwan’s 12 allies in the two regions through music and dance performances by students studying in Taiwan, the ministry said. The show, to be held at National Taiwan University of the Arts, is to also include an exhibition of the food and art of the nations, the ministry said. It said another event is to be held in July, featuring a group of renowned artists and traditional dancers from Paraguay, to mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties with the South American country.
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