■ Government
Taipei City property seized
The Department of Administrative Enforcement announced yesterday that it had seized non-public property belonging to the Taipei City Government because the city had accrued a debt to the Bureau of National Health Insurance of NT$10.8 billion (US$372 million) in insurance subsidies dating back to last year. The department yesterday commissioned the Taipei Land Administration to seize 30 immovable properties that the city government owns, estimated to be worth about NT$11.2 billion. Taipei Deputy Mayor Ou Chin-der (歐晉德) expressed anger over the department's actions and said that the central government could not confiscate the city's properties on its own because the city had filed an appeal with the Taiwan High Court. Ou added that the department's order would impact on the public's rights in Taipei City and that the central government would have to take responsibility.
■ Crime
Heroin busts at CKS
A Taiwanese man allegedly attempting to smuggle more than 500g of heroin into the country from Macau in his shoes was arrested at CKS International Airport on Sunday night, aviation police reported yesterday. The 40-year-old man, identified as Cheng Ching-hung (鄭清宏), had allegedly packed the heroin into four plastic bags and hidden them in the soles of his casual shoes. According to the aviation police, Cheng was walking strangely in the CKS customs area, drawing the attention of the authorities. Aviation police authorities said they were tipped off months earlier that a drug trafficking ring was attempting to smuggle heroin from Macau, Hong Kong, Thailand, Myanmar and China into Taiwan by air or by fishing boat. Meanwhile, according to CKS police authorities, agents from the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation arrested two other suspected smugglers at the airport on Sunday. The two men were said to each be carrying four heroin bricks around their waists.
■ Weather
Storm forms in the south
The Central Weather Bureau is closely monitoring newly-formed Tropical Storm Dianmu, which is lurking southwest of Guam near the Philippines. The bureau said that the storm was centered some 1,000km southwest of Guam at 8am yesterday and was moving north-northwest at 9kph. Meanwhile, temperatures in Taiwan have shot up due to the influence of a high-pressure system in the Pacific.
■ Youth
Camp for diabetic kids
The Catholic Sanipax Socio-Medical Service and Education Foundation is holding its annual summer camp for diabetic primary school children from July 16 through 18. The camp, which the foundation has run for over 10 years, helps diabetic children become more independent and develops their self-confidence, foundation representatives said. During the camp, the children take classes on nutrition and medical care and take part in other group activities. To accommodate the special needs of diabetic children, the camp has an almost one-to-one worker-student ratio. The foundation is hoping for 50 to 60 campers from throughout the nation this year, from grades two to six. The cost will be around NT$4000 to NT$5000 per child. The camp will be held at the China Youth Corps Sun Moon Lake Activity Center (救國團日樂潭青年活動中心). To learn more, see the foundation's Web site at www.kungtai.org.tw or call 02-23667780, ext. 28.
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