■ Society
Li Ao has prostate surgery
TV talk-show star, author and former New Party presidential candidate Li Ao (李敖) underwent successful surgery for prostate cancer yesterday, his physician said. Dr. Chang Shu-jen (張澍人) told reporters that a can-cerous tumor was removed in a 90-minute surgery. The tumor was large but had not spread to other organs, he said. Clad in a blue bathrobe and his trademark sun-glasses after checking into the hospital on Monday, the 68-year-old Li told reporters, "For the sake of my big head, my little head will have to suffer."
■ Health
More dysentery reported
The Center for Disease Control announced yester-day that 17 more cases of dysentery had been con-firmed among a group of Taiwanese who returned from Bali. The new cases raised the total to 42 from the 25 reported on Sunday. "Of the 1,294 travelers who returned from Bali on the [weekend], 24 displayed symptoms," said center deputy director Shih Wen-yi (施文儀). He said 47 people were waiting for lab results to see if they had contracted the disease. "If we are still unable to bring the situation under control, we will ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue a travel advisory against Bali," he said.
■ Culture
Conference starts Friday
The 2003 City-to-City Cul-tural Exchange Conference will begin Friday in Taipei, the Performing Art Alliance announced yesterday. About 50 policymakers, advocates and academics from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Taipei will discuss relations between cultural business and tourism, a city's renovation and a city's image. The conference moves to Taichung for Sunday and Monday.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods