■ LEISURE
'Panda shuttles' planned
The Taipei City Government is planning to launch shuttle bus services between some MRT stations and Taipei Zoo later this month to coincide with the planned opening of the zoo's new panda house during the Lunar New Year holidays beginning on Jan. 25. The “panda shuttles” are being arranged to pick up passengers every five to 15 minutes, starting one hour before opening time at the zoo and running until one hour after closing time, an official at the city's Public Transportation Office said. The shuttle buses will operate between the zoo and the following MRT stations — Taipei City Hall, Qizhang, Gongguan and Taipei Main Station — the official said. In addition, some bus lines, including Nos. 236, 282 and 611, will increase the frequency of their service once the panda house opens.
■ EXHIBITION
Thailand focus of book fair
The 17th Taipei International Book Exhibition will be held from Feb. 4 to Feb. 9, focusing on Thailand's literature and culture, the show's organizer said yesterday. About 500 publishers from some 40 countries are expected to set up 2,000 booths at the exhibition, to be held at the Taipei International Trade Center, the Taipei International Book Exhibition Foundation said on its Web site, adding that the book fair was expected to draw about 400,000 visitors. The foundation said it would invite Thai publishers and writers to introduce Thai literature, culture and publishing industry to the local audience. The fair will have sections for books, book design, comics, children's books and writing tools. The book fair will also offer a platform for Taiwanese and foreign writers and publishers to discuss copyright and translation rights.
■ EDUCATION
Seniors go to school
A group of more than 400 senior citizens have realized their dream of becoming university students through a program launched by the Ministry of Education as part of its efforts to create more learning opportunities for the nation's elderly. The program provides a five-day, four-night campus experience for the group, most of whom could not afford to study when they were younger, a staff member in charge of the program at the Department of Social Education said. Under the program, the participants enjoy the same privileges as regular university students, such as attending courses, joining clubs and staying in dormitories — all provided free by the local universities in cooperation with the ministry. The official quoted the participants — with the last group “graduating” in the middle of last month — as saying they wished they “could have flunked” so they could have stayed in the program longer.
■ HEALTH
Elderly get dental subsidy
The government will grant subsidies to at least 6,000 elderly people from low and medium-income families this year to cover their dental treatment costs, the Ministry of the Interior said in a news release on Thursday. The ministry said that 21.5 percent of the nation's senior population — aged 65 or older — had lost all their teeth. “However, the National Health Insurance program does not cover the costs for dentures,” the ministry said. Minister of the Interior Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) said qualified seniors can visit their local government offices and apply for a NT$40,000 subsidy to cover the cost for a full set of dentures, and for a subsidy of between NT$15,000 and NT$35,000 for removable partial dentures.
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