■ SOCIETY
Bullies number 20,000
The Children Welfare League Foundation estimates that at least 20,000 middle and primary-school students bully fellow pupils. The estimation came after a survey among approximately 2,000 students in Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Hualien counties between June 21 and June 29. Seven percent of students reported that they "often" bully other students. Of these self-professed bullies, more than 70 percent said they snub and verbally abuse children they dislike. Thirty percent said they physically attack others. The survey found that boys were more likely to assault their peers than girls and that some boys even seek assist from gangsters in settling school disputes. Meanwhile, 68 percent of the bullies said seeking revenge was justifiable behavior. Forty-two percent said those who "discipline" others are heroes.
■ EDUCATION
Tu to lead delegation
Education Minister Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝), who is currently visiting Europe, is leading a delegation to the annual conference of the European Association for International Education (EAIE), which began yesterday and ends on Saturday in Trondheim, Norway. A seminar on Taiwan's higher education will be the focus on the last day of an education fair affiliated with the EAIE conference, a ministry official said. The delegation of 41 members includes representatives from 19 colleges and universities, as well as personnel from the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan. At the seminar, Tu and delegation members will discuss Taiwan's higher education system, present teaching methods for Mandarin lessons, and explain educational policies affecting foreign students in Taiwan.
■ CULTURE
Hakka run announced
The Council for Hakka Affairs is organizing a run on Oct. 20 in Pingtung County to promote Hakka culture, Council Minister Lee Yung-te (李永得) said yesterday. Lee invited the public to take part in the run, which is scheduled to start at 6:30am at the Liu Tuei Hakka Cultural Park. Liu Tuei (六堆), an important Hakka cultural area, comprises 12 townships in Pingtung and Kaohsiung counties. The run will span Pingtung County's Neipu (內埔), Linluo (麟洛) and Changchih (長治) townships, passing through beautiful natural scenery, farmland and a variety of Hakka cultural heritage sites, Lee said. The winner of the 21km run will receive NT$25,000, while the 10km run has a prize of NT$6,000. The winners in the 10km team category will receive NT$100,000.
■ HEALTH
Hospital reports research
Mesenchymal stem cells in bone marrow have proven helpful in restoring damaged blood vessels, paving the way for a new treatment for strokes, heart attacks and avascular necrosis, doctors at Taipei Veterans General Hospital reported yesterday. Hung Shih-chieh (洪士杰), the project leader and a doctor at the orthopedics and traumatology department, said mesenchymal stem cells could survive oxygen deprivation by emitting anti-cell death and new blood vessel formation factors and that the results inspired them to explore whether the effects can also work on endothelial cell regeneration. Hung said they proved these factors could inhibit cell death and stimulate the growth of new vessels. The project is a collaboration between the hospital and Tulane University, Louisiana.
■ CRIME
Two fugitives repatriated
The National Police Agency (NPA), working with Japanese police, succeeded in having two wanted Taiwanese fugitives repatriated from Japan on Tuesday. A spokesman for the NPA's Criminal Investigation Bureau said that agents from the bureau's international division brought back Cheng Lien-dah (鄭連達), wanted on charges of drug-trafficking, and Liu Chun-min (劉俊敏), a fraud suspect, aboard a China Airlines flight from Tokyo to Taipei. The spokesman said that Cheng fled abroad after police discovered that he was the mastermind behind a smuggling operation. The spokesman said that Liu was wanted by the Taichung District Court for setting up a bank account in 2003 which was used by a crime ring for fraudulent activities.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Taipei plans car-free day
To raise environmental awareness and join in the international campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Taipei City and County will host a Taipei Car Free Day on Saturday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said yesterday it will give a 20 percent discount to passengers who take the MRT carrying their bicycles on Saturday to encourage more people to cycle. In addition to the 15 MRT stations that already allow passengers to board with their bicycles, the company will also allow passengers to board with bicycles at MRT Taipei City Hall Station and MRT Banciao Station between 6am and 8am on Saturday. To highlight the campaign, government officials will cycle from Taipei County Civic Plaza to Taipei City Civic Plaza on Saturday morning, and the Dinghao Business District will be sectioned off and become a pedestrian only area from 10am to 4pm.
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