SOCIETY
Jobs’ biography best-seller
The Chinese-language edition of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ biography was the best-selling book last year, with more than 60,000 copies sold, despite only being released in late October, according to the nation’s largest online book store. Books.com.tw said the book had sold 63,906 copies as of Nov. 30, followed by Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do, which had sold 29,808 copies. Steve Jobs’ death stimulated sales of the book, which was published on Oct. 24, a sales manager surnamed Chang (張) at the Web site said. Meanwhile, sales of novels in Chinese increased by 20 percent, representing a gain in popularity for Chinese translations of foreign books. Sales of finance, business and -management-related books increased 30 percent this year, reflecting interest among readers in issues such as the national debt and currency, Chang said.
HEALTH
Hepatitis campaign planned
A campaign to raise hepatitis prevention awareness will be held on Christmas Eve in Taipei to raise funds, a research organization said yesterday. People over 26 years old will be eligible for free hepatitis screening at the event, according to the Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Foundation. Since Taiwanese people born after 1985 have been vaccinated against hepatitis, they are on a lower priority list than those who were born before 1985, the foundation said. “There are about 3 million hepatitis B carriers in Taiwan,” said Sheu Jin-chuan (許金川), head of the foundation. “But only 30 percent of them are aware of their condition.” The other 2 million, therefore, are at greater risk of developing more serious complications such as cirrhosis of the liver, he said, urging the public to pay more attention to their health by getting health checks.
TRAVEL
Egypt sparks warning
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged Taiwanese to refrain from traveling to Egypt, as clashes between security forces and civilians continued in Cairo. “Travelers should stay on high alert and avoid unnecessary trips to Egypt,” the ministry said, adding that its orange alert for Taiwanese visitors to the Arab country remained in place. The ministry uses red, orange, yellow and gray alerts in a four-color code to indicate levels of travel alert for people traveling overseas, with red the highest warning level and gray the lowest. “Taiwanese nationals in Egypt should also pay extreme attention to their safety and stay away from mass protests,” the ministry said. “Taiwanese expatriates seeking assistance can contact Taiwan’s TAITRA office in Cairo at +20-2-24184170 or +20-2-24184941.”
CULTURE
Calligraphy event planned
The Taipei City Government is holding a Chinese character-writing event on New Year’s Day as part of the Eighth Chinese Character’s Festival, which several noted calligraphers, lyricists and writers are expected to attend. The writing event, which allows participants to write down their wishes for the coming year, is a traditional New Year custom, Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Cheng Mei-hua (鄭美華) said. A total of 1,200 people, who must register to take part in the festival, will receive a gift bag containing a set of calligraphy brushes, ink, paper and an ink stone, she said. The annual event, initiated in 2005, is the first festival in the world dedicated to the promotion and celebration of Chinese characters.
Staff writer, with agencies
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift