POLITICS
TV presentations on Dec. 23
The first televised campaign platform presentation for the nation’s presidential candidates will be held on Dec. 23, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said. The commission said there would be three TV platform presentations for the presidential candidates — scheduled also for Dec. 30 and Jan. 6 — and one for the vice presidential candidates, to be held on Jan. 2. It said that previously the TV platform presentations were given on Saturday afternoon and the ratings were low. The low ratings and the fact that weekends are usually when candidates are at their busiest campaigning prompted the CEC to reschedule the presidential candidates’ TV presentations for Friday night and the vice presidential candidates’ TV presentation for Monday night.
CRIME
Students’ house set on fire
Narromine Mayor Bill McAnally appealed for calm yesterday in the town in New South Wales, Australia, after a house where three Taiwanese students live was damaged in a blaze allegedly started by residents angry over the death of an alleged intruder, the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported yesterday. The alleged intruder, named in media reports as Tony Prince, a 29-year-old Aborigine, died after the three occupants of the house restrained him on Wednesday. “No one was in the house at the time of the fire, but police say the circumstances are suspicious and that it may have been a reprisal for the death of the man,” AAP reported. According to the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday, an autopsy done on the ill-fated burglar found that he died of causes unrelated to injuries he sustained during the burglary attempt, and the Taiwanese men were allowed to go free.
GERMANY
Working holidays continue
Two hundred Taiwanese young people will be able to work while traveling in Germany as its working holiday program with Taiwan enters its second year, providing opportunities to the same number of participants as the first year, the German Institute Taipei said. The Institute said the program, which started on Oct. 11 last year, offers 200 Taiwanese aged 18 to 30 a chance to stay up to one year in Germany for work, short-term study or tourism. The second year’s program starts this month. German Institute Taipei director--general Michael Zickerick said it approved more than 150 applications last year, showing that many Taiwanese youth use the program to explore his country.
HORTICULTURE
New orchid breeds unveiled
Taiwan officially introduced two newly developed breeds of Oncidium orchids to the world at the International Flower Expo Tokyo on Thursday, drawing the attention of Japanese and international buyers. The yellowish “Baby Face” orchid and “Snow White,” which reflects its name, were the centerpiece of the Taiwan pavilion at the largest flower and horticultural trade show in Asia, which ran from Thursday to yesterday. Chinese Development Association of Oncidium Production and Marketing secretary-general Tseng Ming-chin (曾明進) said that “Baby Face” was developed from “Gower Ramsey,” one of the most popular Taiwan-grown Oncidium orchids on the Japanese market. It was named after its round-shape, he said. “Snow White,” bred by the Floriculture Research Center of Taiwan’s state-run Agricultural Research Institute, is one of Taiwan’s top selling Oncidium orchids in Japan, he added.
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