■ FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Singapore sends documents
Singapore prosecutors sent documents related to the Papua New Guinea fund scandal, in which Taiwan was allegedly defrauded of US$30 million in foreign aid funds by two middlemen, to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office after prosecutor Huang Mo-hsin (黃謀信) went to Singapore on May 13 to seek help on the case. In 2006, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wired US$30 million to an account in Singapore jointly held by two brokers, Ching Chi-ju (金紀玖) and Wu Shih-tsai (吳思財), a Singaporean national. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday refused to reveal whether the documents from Singapore were related to details of the account. Ching presented an eight-page statement and a 110-page paper detailing how the money was used to prosecutors, saying he was not guilty and that no public officials had received kickbacks.
■ SOCIETY
Souvenir hunt launched
In a bid to highlight the distinctive features of the country’s capital, the Taipei City Government launched a campaign yesterday to search for souvenirs that best represent Taipei. “Every product has to have a story that is related to Taipei. In addition to representing the city’s character, the products also need to be commercially competitive, easy to carry, environmental friendly and healthy,” Liu Chug-chun (劉佳鈞), chief manager of the Taipei City Office of Commerce, said at a news conference. The closing date for submissions is July 10. Individuals and shops can make recommendations or register to join the first stage of selection, after which Taipei City residents will be asked to vote on the shortlisted products. Persons wishing to make souvenir recommendations can log on to the Web site www.taipeigift.com.tw.
■ EDUCATION
Students win Web award
A group of students from Mingde Elementary School have won an honorable mention award in the “12 and under” category of the ThinkQuest international Web site-building competition, the Taipei City Education Department said yesterday. The fifth-grade students and their coach won the award for their “Dragons in Chinese Culture” Web site. The ThinkQuest competition, which has been held since 1996, is organized by the Oracle Education Foundation — a charitable organization funded by Oracle, the world’s largest enterprise software company. The competition is aimed at inspiring students to cooperate in creating innovative and educational Web sites to share with the world, the organizer says. The students won a laptop computer and US$1,000 cash for their school.
■ TRANSPORTATION
Kaohsiung touts bicycles
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) vowed yesterday to make the city cyclist-friendly as surging oil prices help increase the popularity of cycling. Chen made the promise during an interpellation session at the Kaohsiung City Council after People First Party Councilor Wu Yi-cheng (吳益政) asked her to improve the environment for cyclists. Wu, who advocates the integration of the mass rapid transit system and cycling, stressed the importance of combining the two modes of transportation in an era of high fuel prices, expressing hope that Kaohsiung City — long notorious for its heavy pollution from industry — could become the most cyclist-friendly city in Asia. Wu said there were still many impediments to people who wish to cycle in the city, including interruptions along bike paths because of heavy traffic, as well as a lack of parking areas for bicycles.
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