■ Weather
CWB issues sea warning
The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) issued a sea warning for typhoon Damrey yesterday, anticipating rough seas in the Bashih Channel and torrential rain for southern and southeastern Taiwan for the next several days. The tropical storm, with a radius of 200km, was centered 340km south-southeast of Taiwan's southernmost tip of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) at 5pm yesterday, moving in a west-northwest direction toward Taiwan at a speed of 12kph, CWB meteorologists reported. Damrey, the 18th typhoon reported in the Pacific this year, is forecast to continue moving toward the South China Sea over the following two days and to directly affect the Bashih Channel area. The eastern part of Taiwan as well as the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at the southernmost tip of Taiwan were expected to begin experiencing heavy rain by nightfall yesterday when these areas came under the influence of the typhoon, while the northern and northeastern parts of the country are forecast to see rain starting today.
■ Society
Women upset with figures
Nearly 75 percent of Taiwan's career women are unsatisfied with their figure, but only 12 percent regularly exercise to improve their figure and health, a poll showed yesterday. According to the poll of 1,782 career women by the E-Woman Weekly, 74.6 percent are unsatisfied with their figure. Of those, 55 percent are unhappy about their thighs, and the rest don't like their abdomen or their behind. However, only 12 percent of Taiwan's career women regularly exercise, 31 percent occasionally exercise and 57 percent never exercise. Reasons for not doing exercise were laziness (65 percent) as well as being too busy and lacking an exercise partner. When asked what kind of exercise they do, 42 percent said window shopping, 21 percent mentioned using Hula Hoops and 10 percent said walking and hiking.
■ Religion
Religious terms suggested
A civic group yesterday resurrected its call for the government and media to support a campaign to change what they say are discriminatory Chinese translations for terms related to Islam and Judaism. The Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan yesterday requested the government and media replace the commonly-used Chinese translation for the religion of Islam, hui chiao (回教), with yisilan chiao (伊斯蘭教) and Muslim, hui chiao tu (回教徒), with muslin (穆斯林) because hui has a connotation of paganism. The foundation also called for substituting the Chinese characters 尤太 (you tai) for the currently used characters for "Jew", 猶太 (also you tai). The foundation said that you (猶) with the "dog" radical refers to a type of monkey and has the connotation of stinginess.
■ Education
More students study abroad
More than 30,000 Taiwanese students went abroad to study last year, nearly 80 percent of whom opted to go to English-speaking countries, according to tallies made public yesterday by the government. A total of 32,525 Taiwanese students applied for visas for academic purposes with foreign representative offices in Taiwan last year, up 23.6 percent over the 2003 figure, but down by 3.7 percent from the peak number posted in 2002, statistics compiled by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) show. The US attracted the largest number of students -- 14,054 -- while the UK and Australia came second and third, luring 9,207 and 2,246 students from Taiwan, respectively.
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
COVID-19 infections have climbed for three consecutive weeks and are likely to reach another peak between next month and June, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. Weekly hospital visits for the disease increased by 19 percent from the previous week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said. From Tuesday last week to yesterday, 21 cases of severe COVID-19 and seven deaths were confirmed, and from Sept. 1 last year to yesterday, there were 600 cases and 129 deaths, he said. From Oct. 1 last year to yesterday, 95.9 percent of the severe cases and 96.7 percent of the deaths
Restarting the No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant would take up to 18 months, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said today. Kuo was answering questions during a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Economics Committee, where legislators are considering amendments to the Renewable Energy Development Act (再生能源發展條) amid concerns about the consequences of the Pingtung County reactor’s decommissioning scheduled for May 17. Its decommissioning is to mark the end of Taiwan’s nuclear power production. However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have proposed an amendment to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) that would extend the life of existing
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday demanded that Somalia reverse its decision prohibiting Taiwanese passport holders from entering or transiting through the country. Somalia said it is following the “one China” principle based on UN Resolution 2758. The ministry said that Somalia is misinterpreting the resolution under China’s instigation, creating a false impression that Taiwan is subordinate to China. The Somali Civil Aviation Authority told airlines on Tuesday last week that starting today, any passengers with passports or travel documents issued from Taiwan or its affiliated institutions would not be allowed to enter or transit through Somalia. The decision comes as Taiwan is boosting
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