■CRIME
Man eggs Presidential Office
A 57-year-old man was arrested in Taipei yesterday for throwing eggs at the Presidential Office. They said the suspect, surnamed Lee, was wearing a white T-shirt decorated with different colored Chinese characters reading “quality of life is affected” and “living is more important.” He told the police that he was unhappy with his quality of life and had taken the high-speed rail from Chiayi to protest. Lee bought a dozen eggs from a convenience store and arrived at the front of the Presidential Office around 3:30pm. Hsueh Wen-jung (薛文容), deputy director and spokesman of Taipei City Police Department’s Zhongzheng First Precinct, said the military police guarding the building stopped Lee and then handed him over to the police.
■EDUCATION
Students win IChO medals
Four Taiwanese captured two gold medals, one silver and one bronze at the week-long 2008 International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) for high-school students in Budapest, Hungary, which concluded on Sunday. The two gold medalists are Tsai Cheng-ting (蔡政廷), a student at the private Weiger High School in Taipei, and Ting Po-chieh (丁柏傑) from Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School. Lai Cheng-yu (賴政優) of Jianguo High School won the silver medal and Li Che-hao (黎哲豪) of Wu Ling Senior High School in Taoyuan County took a bronze. Sixty-nine countries sent teams to this year’s contest, which consists of chemistry tests and experiments, as well as theoretical and practical questions in all areas of chemistry. The delegation will tour Hungary this week before returning home on Friday. The IChO, one of the International Science Olympiads, was first held in Prague in 1968 and has been held every year since, with the exception of 1971.
■HEALTH
KRTC disinfects carriages
All MRT carriages in Kaohsiung City have been disinfected on a daily basis in recent weeks to prevent the spread of enterovirus, a Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) spokesman said on Sunday. The company has 126 carriages, which serve more than 150,000 passengers a day, said Huang Yi-chung (黃一中), a KRTC department chief in charge of public affairs. “During peak hours, MRT carriages tend to be very crowded and passengers often touch the doors, windows, straps and armrests which could become virus spreading sources,” he said. Since the number of suspected and confirmed severe enterovirus cases increased significantly last month, Huang said the KRTC has been disinfecting its carriages every day.
■TRANSPORT
CAL plane has engine woes
A China Airlines (CAL) plane traveling from Hokkaido, Japan, to Taoyuan International Airport began to experience engine problems just before 8pm last Thursday and was forced to make an emergency landing at Naha Airport in Okinawa, the Kyodo News Agency reported yesterday. None of the crew members or passengers was hurt. Kyodo said that the pilot of the Boeing 737 noticed that the instrument panel indicated a problem with the right engine at about 7:50pm, when the plane was about 160km east of Naha. The pilot decided to shut down the engine and radioed the airport to request permission to make an emergency landing. CAL maintenance workers are examining the plane to try to determine the cause of the engine problems, the report said.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
Temperatures in northern Taiwan are forecast to reach as high as 30°C today, as an ongoing northeasterly seasonal wind system weakens, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said yesterday that with the seasonal wind system weakening, warmer easterly winds would boost the temperature today. Daytime temperatures in northern Taiwan and Yilan County are expected to range from 28°C to 30°C today, up about 3°C from yesterday, Tseng said. According to the CWA, temperature highs in central and southern Taiwan could stay stable. However, the weather is expected to turn cooler starting tonight as the northeasterly wind system strengthens again
Taiwan sweltered through its hottest October on record, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, the latest in a string of global temperature records. The main island endured its highest average temperature since 1950, CWA forecaster Liu Pei-teng said. Temperatures the world over have soared in recent years as human-induced climate change contributes to ever more erratic weather patterns. Taiwan’s average temperature was 27.381°C as of Thursday, Liu said. Liu said the average could slip 0.1°C by the end of yesterday, but it would still be higher than the previous record of 27.009°C in 2016. "The temperature only started lowering around Oct. 18 or 19
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