■DIPLOMACY
Zedkaia receives degree
Marshall Islands President Jurelang Zedkaia received an honorary doctorate from National Taiwan Normal University yesterday in recognition of his efforts to promote bilateral relations and for helping Taiwan participate in international organizations. Zedkaia received his honorary doctorate in political science from university president Chang Kuo-en (張國恩) in a ceremony witnessed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) and other officials. Zedkaia said the honor was a big event for him as well as his country, and one he would not forget. Afterwards, he visited the university’s Mandarin Training Center, where he took part in a 20-minute-long language class, where he learned several Mandarin phrases. This is Zedkaia’s first state visit to Taiwan. He arrived on Wednesday on a six-day trip.
■ENTERTAINMENT
Karaoke tape makers fined
The Fair Trade Commission on Wednesday fined two karaoke tape makers a total of NT$1.7 million (US$53,000) for restricting market competition. In a meeting with distributors and retailers in September 2008, the two companies allegedly said that their distributors were not permitted to sell or act as an agency for other tape makers, or they would terminate their contracts. The commission said the two firms controlled 80 percent of the market, and their actions had interfered with free market competition because other tape makers were not able to obtain distributors for their products.
■ENVIRONMENT
Drug recycling stations open
Recycling stations opened at 1,500 drug stores nationwide yesterday for the collection of expired or unused medications. “The recycling stations are being set up to encourage people to join the campaign against environmental pollution by properly disposing of drugs and other medical products,” said Lien Jui-meng (連瑞猛), president of the Union of Pharmacist Associations. A survey by a research team headed by National Taiwan University associate professor Chen Chia-yang (陳家揚), said traces of fever reducers, pain relievers, antibiotics and lipid-lowering drugs have been found in major rivers in the north and center of the country. Although these medications were safe for human consumption, they could cause ecological changes if dumped in rivers, because long-term exposure to contaminated river water could affect the growth of aquatic plants and fish, Chen said.
■TOURISM
Singaporeans prefer Taipei
Taipei is the most popular Asian city among Singaporean backpackers, a survey published in the Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao in Singapore on Wednesday showed. Some 31 percent of young travelers polled said Taipei topped the list of cities they would like to visit, followed by Bangkok, Shanghai and Sydney. The survey examined the preferences of the city-state’s young people in a number of categories, including most popular brands, video games and places to go. The Lianhe Zaobao said the cultural diversity and the wide range of leisure activities in Taipei were the main factors attracting young tourists. Philip Chao (趙光訓), director of Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau Office in Singapore, said Taipei offers tourists fine cuisine, high mountains and spectacular sea views.Taipei, like Singapore, is a safe city with activity going on 24 hours a day, Chao said.
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