■ Security
ID cards to get fingerprints
Picking up new ID cards will require a submission of fingerprints unless the existing household registration law is revised before July 1, Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said yesterday. The Ministry of the Interior is scheduled to replace existing ID cards with a new forgery-proof version as of July 1 this year, valid until June 30, 2006. As the current regulations require fingerprints, Su said, the ministry prepares formulating the rules governing the preservation and storage of fingerprints. To ensure a smooth ID card replacement process, the ministry has organized training courses for staff members to be launched from March 31 through April 15. Starting June 1, local household registration offices will notify people to submit one photo to be used on the new cards. People must pick up their new ID cards in person, while a home delivery service will be provided for those suffering from a serious illness or injury.
■ Culture
Graffiti allowed in parks
Graffiti has become a recognized form of expression in Taiwan, and five Taipei parks are now open to anyone wanting to "piece, do a throwup or just tag." Aside from the Chungshan Fine Arts Park, four other parks that have provided spaces for graffiti include Ta-an Park, Tienmu Park, Nangang Park and Changan Green Land Park, said Chen Wei-jen (陳威仁), director of the Public Works Department under the Taipei City Government. The city government is allowing graffiti in the parks primarily to let people express their ideas and opinions about life and let off some steam, he said, adding that the city government intends to take pictures of meaningful graffiti and display it.
■ Health
Near-sightedness increasing
The Ministry of Education released a study yesterday which showed that pre-school children who are near-sighted increased by tenfold doubled in the past ten years. In the survey, over 10 percent of children between four and seven are found to be nearsighted, 19 percent of children between six and seven are nearsighted. The ministry was alerted by the study results and attributed the cause of the high percentage of near-sighted pre-school children to the increased time children spent in front of televisions and computers. The ministry plans to promote more healthy outdoor recreational activities to increase the interactions between parents and their children.
■ Sports
Taipei to host inline contest
Twenty-two teams from 18 countries will gather in Taipei on April 17 for an inline skating competition to be held by the Taipei city government. "World Inline Cup Taipei 2005," organized by the city government and the Chinese Taipei Sports and Recreation Association, will be the city's first international skating competition. An estimated 10,000 participants from around the globe will take part in the 42km or 20km races, or a non-competitive 8km marathon. Among the participants are Massimiliano Presti and Luca Saggiorato from Italy, the world's No.1 and No.2 skaters last year. The winner of the 42km course will win US$5,250, while the 20km course -- open only to Taiwanese -- will offer a first prize of NT$12,000. Registration is open until Tuesday. For more information on the event, visit www.ctsra.org.tw, or download an entry form at www.ctsra.org.tw/english.doc.
■ Politics
Hsu gets 72 endorsements
Carrying a letter of support co-signed by 72 of his legislative colleagues, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Shu-poh (許舒博) announced his candidacy for Yunlin County Commissioner yesterday. Speaking in Yunlin yesterday, Hsu said that he was no longer able to look away given the mounting debts of Yunlin County. Hsu promised that if elected, he would work for the people of Yunlin County and try to heal political divisions. Hsu's letter of support included endorsements from seven People First Party legislators. Voicing confidence about his chances in the KMT's intra-party primaries for the year-end mayoral and country commissioner elections, Hsu said that he trusted the party would choose the best candidate to run in Yunlin County.
■ Society
Children's conference held
The 2005 Civil Conference for Children was held in Kaohsiung yesterday, with a total of 86 children participating. Acting Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) also attended the conference and addressed the children, dubbing them "little self-governing mayors." He promised the children -- selected from elementary schools around the city -- that he will improve technology in elementary schools in the city and create a good English-learning environment so that children can communicate with foreigners in English during the World Games slated to be held in the city in 2009. He also encouraged them to use public transport to reduce air pollution in the city. Chen promised that he will make the city environmentally friendly by reducing energy consumption and instead use natural power sources such as solar or wind power to operate street lamps.
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