TRAVEL
MOFA warns on Ivory Coast
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday advised people against traveling to the Ivory Coast, where the situation remains tense and violent as armed forces backing the two presidential rivals engaged in fighting following a standoff after the second round of a presidential election. Former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara have both claimed victory in the second round of voting, which was held on Nov. 28. Rebel forces aiming to install Ouattara, who is internationally recognized as the winner of the election, encircled the presidential residence and palace earlier this month, leading to violent street battles in Abidjan. Taiwanese living in Ivory Coast should refrain from taking part in protests and be aware of their safety, the ministry said, adding that people in need of help in cases of emergency can have their families in Taiwan call a toll-free hotline at 0800-085-095.
CRIME
Pirate pet factory raided
Sorry Fido. Police in Greater Kaohsiung said yesterday they had busted a factory that produced counterfeit products for pets, seizing fake Louis Vuitton (LV) garments with an estimated value of more than NT$20 million (US$660,000). Officers said they launched the raid at the factory in Pingtung County on Friday after being tipped off by an unknown source. They arrested the owner, surnamed Wei (魏), who, along with 20 employees, had been making counterfeit products for more than four years. Wei allegedly printed the LV logo from computers onto various products, including pet clothing and scarves, as well as animal carrier bags, police said. However, police said the factory only showed the branded products when potential customers
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