POLITICS
Soong ‘senses’ change
People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday said he was “surprised” about the current status of his presidential election endorsement, but did not elaborate on the exact number of signatures he has obtained from the public. “I am really surprised that those who used to be indifferent to political affairs have also participated in my endorsement to show their support,” said Soong, who registered on Sept. 20 to run for president. He needs to collect more than 250,000 signatures to become eligible to run in the Jan. 14 election. Although Soong refused to comment on the actual number of signatures he has obtained so far, he said he could “sense a voice from society” that expects a new momentum to take Taiwan out of “its current difficult situation.”
EDUCATION
More Mongolians in Taiwan
Mongolians have increasingly shown interest in coming to Taiwan to pursue advanced studies, attracted by the nation’s diverse cultures, high-tech maturity and relatively low costs. Mongolia first sent 24 students to Taiwan in 2000 for higher education and by last year the number had increased to 438, according to Vice Minister of Education Lin Tsong-ming (林聰明). Mongolians make up the 11th-largest group of foreign students seeking higher education in Taiwan, Lin said. He added that from next year Taiwan will increase the number of scholarships granted to Mongolians from 14 to 20. Lin led a delegation to Mongolia last month to take part in a Taiwan Education Fair and to unveil a Taiwan-Mongolia Science Education Center in Ulan Bator. At least 300 visitors to the fair expressed an interest in coming to Taiwan for undergraduate or postgraduate studies, as well as to learn Mandarin, Lin said.
SOCIETY
Deaflympics champ returns
A hearing-impaired gold--medalist runner from Australia returned to Taiwan to pay tribute to the late entrepreneur Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) in a memorial road run yesterday. Melinda Vernon, who won two gold medals at the 2009 Taipei Summer Deaflympics with record-breaking performances, said she came to pay respects to Wang, who had donated hearing aids to people like her prior to his death in 2008. The 26-year-old broke records for the women’s 10,000m and 5,000m at the Taipei Games. More than 7,000 participants ran in the 5km Yung-Ching Wang Run in Taipei yesterday, while a similar number took part in a run in Chiayi County, where Wang began his career.
SPORTS
Chen departs for S Africa
Extreme marathon runner Tommy Chen (陳彥博) left for South Africa yesterday to compete in a seven-day, 250km race. Wearing an outfit bearing a Republic of China flag, Chen told reporters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport that after he arrives in South Africa, he will take a bus to the Great Kalahari Desert, site of the 12th Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon. The 25-year-old said that at this time of year, temperatures in the Kalahari range from 5°C to 48°C and that he had been training in the mountains of Europe and in Western Australia to get himself accustomed to the huge temperature differences. Chen, widely seen as following in the footsteps of Taiwanese ultra-marathon champion Kevin Lin (林義傑), took part in a North Pole marathon in April last year and won a bronze medal, setting a record as the youngest competitor to finish in the top three. He also won a silver in the 100km ultra-marathon race in Antarctica in December.
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