HEALTH
Number of dengue cases rise
A total of 78 new cases of local dengue fever — including four hemorrhagic cases — were reported last week, showing that the disease has continued unabated despite the onset of cooler weather, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said yesterday. Chou said most of the new cases were in Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung in the south. One fatality was reported from among the four hemorrhagic cases, the CDC said, adding the death was that of a 66-year-old woman in Kaohsiung. The woman developed a fever, headache and loss of appetite late last month and died shortly after seeking treatment. The CDC urged the public to remove any standing water as this is principal breeding ground for mosquitoes that carry the disease.
CRIME
Fake ‘kaoliang’ seized
Investigators have arrested 10 people for allegedly producing fake Kinmen kaoliang liquor and confiscated more than 70 cases of the counterfeit spirit estimated to be worth more than NT$20 million (US$684,000), officials said yesterday. After an initial examination, state-owned Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor general manager Wu Chiou-mu (吳秋穆) said the fakes were easy to spot, although this was disputed by the investigators, who said the counterfeit liquor was convincing. The bottles, estimated to be worth between NT$16,000 and NT$20,000 each, were seized in New Taipei City (新北市), Hsinchu and Kinmen, the investigators said. The investigators said samples of the fake “Black King Kong” kaoliang bottles have been sent for testing to see if they contain hazardous substances. The last time the Kinmen distillery manufactured the rare “Black King Kong” kaoliang, a blend of 15-year-old and new liquor, was in 2009, Wu said.
SOCIETY
Women heel up in bad times
Female office workers are more likely to opt for higher heels when the economy is slumping, hoping to project greater confidence and elegance, a survey of female office workers released yesterday found. The survey, conducted jointly by online human resources company 360d and a shoe company, first asked respondents what kind of shoes they owned most of. Forty-nine percent of those polled said they own mostly flats, while 26 percent have mostly low-heeled shoes, 21 percent wear mostly mid-heeled shoes and 4 percent generally wear high heels. When asked what they would buy now given the sluggish economy, 10 percent of respondents said they would opt for high heels to make themselves appear more confident. Only 33 percent, compared with 49 percent under normal economic circumstances, said they would prefer flat shoes because then they could move more easily and efficiently. Another 12 percent said they did not care about the height of their heels.
DIPLOMACY
Ministry plans centers
The Ministry of Culture will open cultural centers in Latin America and central Europe, Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) said yesterday, urging overseas officials to join in efforts to promote Taiwanese culture abroad. The importance of promoting Taiwanese culture and increasing its global presence “is 10 or a 100 times greater than that of other countries,” she said. Taiwan currently has overseas cultural offices in Paris, New York and Tokyo, and it will establish one in Moscow and another in London next year. The nation is looking to expand the total to 12.
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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