■ Culture
Plaque replaces Chiang
A name plaque for the Kaohsiung City Cultural Center was installed above the main entrance yesterday as part of the local government's participation in the national government's name-change campaign, which seeks to remove references to dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from local place names. The move followed the local government's decision on March 13 to rename the cultural center and dismantle Chiang's statue at the Kaohsiung Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center despite protests from opponents. An official with the city's Cultural Affairs Bureau said that the space once occupied by the Chiang statue would be used for art displays.
■ Food industry
Event promotes pork
In view of a slump in hog prices, the National Animal Industry Foundation held an event to promote pork consumption yesterday in Kaohsiung County, inviting the public to sample pork delicacies. The foundation has organized 10 promotional events to be staged around the country, the first of which was held in Kaohsiung County with the participation of several central and local government officials. Some 1,000 people were divided into 30 teams, joined forces to prepare a wide range of pork recipes, including baked sausages and meats, salted pork, smoked bacon and roasted suckling pig. At present, the annual average hog trading price is between NT$4,300 to NT$4,500 per 100kg, much lower than last year's NT$5,000 per 100kg and lower than the cost of production, which is NT$4,800 to NT$5,000 per 100kg.
■ Narcotics
Pingtung plant raided
The Bureau of Investigation announced yesterday that it had uncovered a ketamine manufacturing plant and seized 30kg of ketamine in Pingtung County, marking the first time that such a drug factory had been uncovered by law enforcement officials. With the help of a sniffer dog, bureau investigators spotted the factory inside a house early yesterday morning and arrested three suspects, a bureau official said. The official said that while raiding the plant, the investigators witnessed the suspects producing drugs. The official added that the 30kg of ketamine, which have a street value of more than NT$10 million (US$302,000), can be used to produce at least 1 million ecstasy pills. Ketamine is a non-barbiturate narcotic. As it costs far less than heroin or amphetamine, it has become a favorite of drug traffickers.
■ Show
Cycle show attracts buyers
This year's Taipei International Cycle Show -- the largest bicycle industry exhibition in Asia -- is expected to attract more than 4,000 foreign buyers, including several international enterprises, said the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), which organized the event. The show, which opened on Saturday in the Taipei World Trade Center and will last until tomorrow, comprises a total of 2,299 booths set up by 694 companies, marking unprecedented growth in scale, a TAITRA official said yesterday. The official said that the number of foreign buyers would likely break the 4,000 mark. Major purchasers -- including the top British bike company Halfords, the US-based Trek and Italy's Lampa SPA -- have sent representatives to visit the show and conduct purchasing negotiations with exhibiting companies. TAITRA has organized up to 100 bike trade consultation meetings for those interested in placing orders.
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