DEFENSE
Officer on wanted list
The government has put a military intelligence officer on the wanted list after she failed to report to work following a holiday in Thailand last month, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The lieutenant, identified only by her surname Yeh (葉), has been sacked by the military intelligence bureau and will face a court-martial for abandoning her post if she returns home, the ministry said. However, the ministry denied media reports alleging she had acquired important intelligence and defected to China. “We are investigating the case and we will thoroughly review our systems for recruiting, selecting, training and assigning staff,” it said in a statement.
AGRICULTURE
Biopesticide selling well
The Council of Agriculture said yesterday it has developed a biopesticide that has received a favorable response from farmers since its launch late last year. According to an official with the Taiwan Agricultural Chemicals and Toxic Substances Research Institute, this is the first locally developed organic biopesticide to be approved by local authorities. The pesticide is effective against insect larvae that feed on vegetables such as cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower and soybeans, the official said, adding that demand has been strong since the technology was transferred to Fwusow Industry Co for commercialization. Although deadly to the insect, the pesticide does not affect humans or other animals, making it a safe choice for farmers, the council said.
SPORTS
Shalun Beach tightens rules
Safety measures at New Taipei City’s (新北市) Shalun Beach, where five students recently drowned, have been tightened and those who ignore warnings against swimming or playing in the water will be fined, New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said on Monday. Swimming is banned at the beach, but since it is difficult to differentiate between swimming and playing around, the government will no longer allow beachgoers to enter the water, he added. Hou said beach guards who patrol the beach will discourage visitors from going into the water, and those who disregard the warnings will be fined up to NT$25,000. Meanwhile, authorities at Zheng De Junior High School, where the five students were enrolled, called for donations to help the bereaved families who are having a hard time paying for funeral arrangements. A total of 22 people have drowned at the beach since it was closed in 1999 because of strong undercurrents and dangerous whirlpools.
HEALTH
Six new enterovirus cases
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported six new cases of severe enterovirus in the nation yesterday, adding that the annual peak period for infection has not ended. Five of the six patients, all children under the age of four, have been treated and discharged from hospital, the centers said, but the sixth, an 11-month-old boy from central Taiwan, is still in hospital. “We discovered that a three-year-old boy and his one-year-old sister might have been infected by other family members,” the CDC said of two of the new cases. As of Monday, the number of serious enterovirus cases this year reached 102, with one death recorded. The fatal case involved a five-month-old boy who died late last month of enterovirus 71, a virulent form of the virus, the CDC 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:
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