■ WEATHER
More cold, more rain
The Central Weather Bureau said yesterday that another cold front is approaching Taiwan, which will likely lower the mercury to about 8oC in northern and central areas from today. The bureau said the cold front would last until Thursday, bringing overnight lows of 8oC to areas north of Tainan, the northeastern coast and the outlying islands of Kinmen and Matsu. Temperatures are expected to pick up on Thursday. The cold front is also expected to bring more rain through the week to northern and northeastern parts of Taiwan.
■ CRIME
Hung Chi-te in car crash
Entertainer Hung Chi-te (洪其德) apologized yesterday to the family of a 59-year-old woman killed in a car accident. Police said the accident took place in Kenting at 12:15am yesterday, when Hung's car collided with the motorcycle Lu A-chao (盧阿昭) was riding. Hung said he had had a few whiskeys with a friend in Pingtung County on Sunday night and regretted what he did. He was released on NT$100,000 bail after being questioned by police, who said Hung's blood alcohol level exceeded the legal limit. Last year, Hung tearfully apologized on TV for using drugs. He has recently opened a steamed dumpling restaurant with entertainer Jung Hsiung (戎祥) in Hengchun (恆春), Pingtung County.
■ GOVERNMENT
Watchdog eyes legislature
The Citizen Congress Watch (CCW), a private watchdog that oversees the legislature, will pay close attention to the new legislature, in which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-led "pan-blue" camp holds a three-quarter majority, the group's head said yesterday. CCW chairman Ku Chung-hua (顧忠華) said the watchdog would evaluate the performance of legislators "based on their attendance records and speeches during the legislative session that began on Feb. 1." The watchdog will also request the right to observe committee meetings relating to the rights of citizens, hold a forum in the middle of this month to prepare a white paper on parliamentary reform and organize a parade on March 15 demanding greater legislative transparency and openness, Ku said. Former legislator Joanna Lei (雷倩) said the watchdog should use three tools to supervise the legislature: the Legislative Yuan's Gazette, the property declarations of public servants and the Lobbying Act.
■ HEALTH
COA issues reminder
The Council of Agriculture is urging Taiwanese who are planning to travel abroad not to bring back prohibited goods, adding that sniffer dogs had been deployed at airports and harbors to safeguard the nation's environment. The council's Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said about a dozen dogs, mostly beagles, were on duty at major gateways around the country, inspecting baggage around the clock, especially for travelers returning from Southeast Asian countries, Hong Kong and Macau. A bureau official said many migrant workers from Southeast Asia return to Taiwan after a visit to their native countries during the Lunar New Year vacation, bringing with them hometown specialties, such as tropical fruits, spices, seeds and plants, which may carry viruses. "All banned goods will be destroyed," the official said. To protect the environment against foreign species and contagious diseases, the official said that travelers carrying contraband goods could face prosecution and jail.
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