■ CRIME
Fake cigarettes are N Korean
Most of the 6.1 million packs of smuggled cigarettes seized in Taiwan -- worth about NT$336 million (US$10.4 million) -- are fake Japanese brands, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. A report published on Sunday in Japan's Sankei Shimbun said that to gain foreign currency reserves, North Korea has 10 factories manufacturing counterfeit Japanese cigarettes that are smuggled into Taiwan. A former major source of North Korea's foreign reserves was amphetamine production, the report said. However, because of crackdowns on drugs in many countries, two of the three amphetamine factories were shut down, the report said, adding that the North had switched to producing counterfeit cigarettes. The factories help Pyongyang earn foreign reserves worth between US$500 million and US$700 million annually, according to the report, and Taiwan is the largest market.
■ HEALTH
Peruvian patient doing well
A Peruvian woman who underwent surgery for elephantiasis in her left leg last month is recovering well, an E-Da Hospital spokesman said on Sunday. Maria Rosario Razzeto, 45, came to Taiwan on Nov. 9, accompanied by her son, through the assistance of Dr. Chang Chia-hau (張家豪), who is on the staff of the hospital. Razzeto praised the team that operated on her in an interview to a group of journalists from Central and South America who were covering her story. Razzeto told the group that her "giant leg" -- which had weighed 47kg -- made it difficult for her to move and was extremely painful. It also left her too ashamed to go out. Razzeto now can bend her left leg and walk with the help of a walking frame. E-Da's rehabilitation center said Razzeto might be able to walk normally after one or two months of physiotherapy. The hospital has covered the cost of Razzeto's operation and hospitalization. It is also planning to give her a tooth implant when she returns for a check-up in February or March to give her a new smile.
■ HEALTH
Dopamine agonist alert
The Department of Health yesterday issued a reminder about the possible side-effects of a drug commonly used to treat people with Parkinson's disease. Dopamine agonists routinely used to alleviate symptoms of the degenerative disease have been linked to compulsive behaviors such as pathological gambling. Although yesterday's press release said that there are no known domestic cases of this side-effect, medical care providers and patients were still reminded to be alert for uncharacteristic compulsive behaviors.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods