■ Technology
Hours lost to junk e-mail
Each Internet user in Taiwan wastes an average of 30 hours per year deleting junk e-mails, according to an estimate released yesterday by the Consumers' Foundation. The estimate was based on the results of an online survey conducted last month among 715 Internet users, which showed that 32 percent of respondents receive 30 to 60 junk e-mails every eight hours, and 39 percent receive less than 30 bona fide e-mail messages. The daily average per user is about 100 junk e-mails, the officials said. If it takes three seconds to delete one junk e-mail letter, this translates into 30 hours spent per year deleting junk e-mails, they said. Ninety percent of respondents said they hope the government will enact a law to forbid advertisers from sending e-mails to consumers without their consent. Members of the foundation's telecommunications committee said that an existing draft law on the issue would give Internet users the right, after receiving junk e-mail from an advertiser, to request that no further such e-mails be sent in the future.
■ Entertainment
Pavarotti's flight debated
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) will coordinate with the military to allow Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti's private jet to land at Taichung Airport if the Taichung City Government makes such a request, CAA officials said. Pavarotti is scheduled to perform in Taichung on Dec. 14. The concert organizer reportedly has asked the CAA to allow the singer to fly directly from Macau to Taichung, but the application was reportedly rejected. According to the officials, the company arranging Pavarotti's tour e-mailed the CAA early last month to inquire about the possibility of his private jet landing at Taichung and the CAA replied that the airport, which is for military and commercial use, does not allow private jets to land there. If the Taichung City Government submits the application, however, the CAA will coordinate with the military and consider the request on a case-by-case basis, they said. On Tuesday, Taichung City Council demanded that the city government ask the Cabinet to allow the international star's plane to land in Taichung.
■ Politics
DPP's Tsai may swap name
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳) yesterday said he will change his last name back to Tsai if the long-stalled arms procurement bill and confirmation of the president's confirmation of Control Yuan members fail to proceed to committees for review within a week. Tsai jokingly changed his last name to "Biao" (裱) after President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) announced on Tuesday that no TV networks will be shut down during his tenure. The president made the remark in response to the latest controversy surrounding the debatable shareholder structure of a TV station, TVBS. Tsai had previously sworn that the public could call him "biao ge (婊哥)", or "bitch brother" if the government failed to shut down TVBS, whose shareholder structure he claimed was illegal. He, however, changed it to the less obscene character, "biao" (裱). Although he said on Tuesday that he had made a mistake in his understanding of the matter, he yesterday called on the station to explain its shareholder structure and asked the government to take action if the station is found to have violated the law or evaded taxes.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
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