■ CRIME
Drug ring broken up
Drug enforcement authorities in Taiwan, the US and Thailand have broken up a major drug ring in the Golden Triangle after more than one year of intensive joint tracking, the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) said. The MJIB and the Criminal Investigation Bureau have been cooperating closely with Thailand’s Office of Narcotics Control Board and the Royal Thai Police’s Narcotics Suppression Bureau, as well as the US Drug Enforcement Administration, to track down a drug ring headed by a Thai druglord of Chinese origin known as Jifan, an MJIB release said. After more than a year of investigation, agents from the five agencies raided the ring’s operational bases in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai and other areas in the Golden Triangle early on Wednesday morning, the MJIB said. The raids led to the arrest of Jifan and other key figures, including two men known as Jimao and Singhol, and the seizure of more than 10 million Thai baht (US$286,000) in drug money, it said.
■ TRAVEL
‘Yellow’ alert widened
Argentina and Brazil have been added to the “yellow” travel alert category along with 22 other countries and Hong Kong for having confirmed cases of the influenza A(H1N1) virus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Travelers should take extra sanitation precautions when visiting “yellow” alert countries, the ministry said. So far, Mexico remains the only country on the “red” alert list, which means travelers should avoid non-essential trips to Mexico until further notice. For an updated list of travel alerts, visit the Bureau of Consular Affairs at www.boca.gov.tw.
■ HEALTH
Boy dies of influenza
A five-year-old boy died on Thursday after fighting a bout of severe influenza for more than a month, making him the fifth flu-related fatality reported in Taiwan so far this year. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Shih Wen-yi (施文儀) said the case had nothing to do with the current global swine flu outbreak. Taiwan is still free of influenza A(H1N1), Shih said. The boy became sick during the flu season earlier this year, Shih said, adding that none of his kindergarten classmates had contracted the virus. So far this year, 19 cases of severe flu have been reported, CDC tallies show. Although the flu season has passed, Shih said people should still maintain good hygiene habits and wash their hands frequently to avoid contracting the virus.
■ HEALTH
Group urges blood tests
As many as 50 percent of adult women tested recently by the Taiwan Heart Foundation displayed high levels of lipids in the blood, which can increase the risk of heart disease, foundation officials said yesterday. A total of 800 women volunteered to undergo the tests, which were conducted two weeks ago in the Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung regions. The tests show that half the women had total cholesterol levels exceeding 240mg/dl. Even among younger women aged 20 to 39, two to three in every 10 had high cholesterol levels, foundation CEO Huang Jui-jen (黃瑞仁) said. He said the results indicate that hyperlipidemia is not unique to older women, although the ratio of women with the problem tends to increase with age. He advised women aged 30 or older to undergo blood lipid tests at least once every three years. If the tests show abnormal results, treatment should be given and follow-up tests should be conducted every year, he said.
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