■POSTAL SERVICE
Post Office to lick corruption
Postal company Chunghwa Post will issue a set of stamps on Wednesday to mark International Anti-Corruption Day, the company said yesterday. The set will comprise two stamps, one with a denomination of NT$5 and one of NT$25, the company said. Differing only in color and denomination, the two stamps will feature the same design: a globe with latitude and longitude lines that form the Chinese character “lian,” meaning “clean and honest.” “The image conveys the idea that Taiwan is taking the lead in promoting clean and competent government and its determination in implementing anti-corruption efforts,” the statement reads. First day covers will be sold from Monday.
■HEALTH
More suffer sleepless nights
The number of people in Taiwan suffering from chronic insomnia has nearly doubled in three years, as economic worries caused by the global downturn have brought more sleepless nights, a study showed yesterday. Nearly 5 million, or 21.8 percent of the population, have chronic insomnia, compared with 11.5 percent three years ago, the study from the Taiwan Society of Sleep Medicine said. The study also found that people with sleeping problems had a higher risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, the society said in a statement. The hike in sleeplessness was largely caused by unemployment as the nation plunged into recession late last year, it said. Chronic insomnia is defined as three sleepless nights in a week with the symptoms lasting for more than a month. More than 60 percent of the 4,000 people interviewed for the study also complained about waking up at night or having difficulties falling asleep within 30 minutes.
■ENTERTAINMENT
Hakka TV scoops awards
Taiwan’s Hakka Television Station won the Best Drama Series and Best Single Drama categories at the 14th Asia Television Awards (ATA) ceremony in Singapore on Thursday. Entering the competition for the first time to compete against programs from networks such as Discovery and National Geographic Channel Asia, Hakka TV earned nominations in four categories. The Best Drama Series award was given to Hakka TV’s 1895 in Formosa, which depicts a love story set during a Hakka revolt against the Japanese. The Best Single Drama award went to Hakka TV’s Love in the Season of Osmanthus, a comedy in which three middle-aged men try to rob a security van. Hakka TV director Hsu Chin-yun (徐青雲) said the station spends considerable effort on the cast, plot and production of dramas, which serve to promote Hakka culture.
■TOURISM
Visitor No. 4 million expected
The four-millionth tourist to Taiwan this year is expected to arrive today, which would be the first time this mark has been reached, the Tourism Bureau said yesterday. The lucky visitor will receive a debit card with a cash value of NT$400,000 (US$12,400) for exclusive use in Taiwan during their visit, bureau officials said. He or she will also receive many other gifts. The Tourism Bureau launched an incentive offer this year as part of a program to increase the number of visitors. The 1 millionth, 2 millionth and 3 millionth visitors also received debit cards earlier this year, but with a lower value. The bureau, in conjunction with the Northeast Coast and Guanyinshan National Scenic Area Administration and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, is also staging two photo exhibitions at the airport until Feb. 28.
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater