■ Transportation
ETC trial run begins
A 10-day trial run of the electronic Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system began yesterday and will end at midnight on Jan. 25. The trial will take place on eight stops along the north-south Formosa Freeway (Freeway 3) from Holong (後龍) in Miaoli County to Chutien (竹田) in Pingtung County. Two lanes have been allocated at toll booths for the trial run. Vehicles with on-board units (OBUs) are advised to use the innermost lanes. Ministry of Transport and Communications officials asked drivers to make sure they don't enter the wrong lane as offenders will be subject to a NT$3,000 fine. The ETC system was slated to begin operations on Jan. 1 but is now set to go into effect nationwide on Feb. 10. During the three-month promotion period for the system OBUs are priced at NT$680, with free installation. After the promotion period OBUs will be priced at NT$1180 and installation will cost NT$175. A deposit of NT$500 is also required. The ETC tolls will be NT$40 for small cars, NT$50 for buses and NT$65 for cars connected to trailers or other parts.
PHOTO: TSAI CHIH-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
■ Foreign labor
Airport aid now available
A service station was established yesterday at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport to help foreign laborers upon arrival. The service station will help with documentation checks and baggage claim, disputes with airport personnel, legal assistance and problems with laborers being mislead or cheated by unlawful bodies on their arrival in this country. Assistance will be given from the moment of arrival until the foreign workers are delivered to the hands of their employers or those who are collecting them at the airport. A service station will also be provided in the departure halls, where a hotline for last minute protests or objections will be available for those who have been unfairly dismissed or are being repatriated.
■ Society
Dog buyers cautioned
The number of people expected to buy dogs is expected to rise sharply as the Lunar New Year brings in the "Year of the Dog" so Council of Agriculture officials yesterday warned dog lovers to ensure their pets receive the necessary vaccinations, especially for rabies. Although Taiwan has been rabies free since the 1960s, the increase in trade between China and Taiwan means that extra caution should be taken since rabies is a serious problem in China, they said. Officials said that pet buyers should avoid buying pets whose origins are unknown. If any member of the public has suspicions about animal smuggling, they should call 0800031131.
■ Travel
Japan mulls driving rights
Japan is considering recognizing Taiwanese driver licenses, Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kazuo Kitagawa said on Sunday. He said that his ministry is discussing the issue with police authorities. Taiwanese tourists cannot use international drivers' licenses in Japan because Tokyo does not recognize Taiwanese licenses. As Taiwan is the second-largest source of tourists to Japan, Kitagawa said his ministry plans to recognize Taiwanese licenses in order to attract more Taiwanese visitors. Taiwanese made about 1.3 million visits to Japan last year.
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:
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
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