WEATHER
Temperatures to edge up
Stable and moderate weather is expected across the nation during the Lantern Festival today, with daily highs likely to rise by 2°C, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Temperatures of 15°C to 21°C can be expected in northern areas, and 16°C to 25°C in southern areas of the nation, according to the bureau. While occasional showers are likely in northern and eastern Taiwan due to the influence of seasonal winds, western areas will likely see cloudy to sunny skies, forecasters said. Similar weather could last into Wednesday, when a cold front is expected to bring the mercury down nationwide, the bureau said.
HEALTH
CDC warns on dengue fever
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday called for public attention to the unusual increase in the number of dengue fever cases in Southeast Asian countries this year and said that people should take preventive measures if they plan to travel to endemic areas. The CDC said that according to records, Southeast Asia has been the main origin of the reported imported cases of dengue fever, a mosquito borne viral disease. This year has already seen 21 imported cases from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore, Myanmar and Malaysia. Travelers to the endemic areas are advised to wear light-colored, long-sleeved clothes and apply mosquito repellents approved by the Department of Health. People returning from the endemic areas with symptoms like fever, headache and muscle or joint pain should go to a doctor and report to the health institutions immediately in order to avoid a local endemic breakout.
AVIATION
New TAIC head announced
The state-run Taiwan Airport International Corp (TAIC) on Friday announced former Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) director-general Yin Cheng-pong (尹承蓬) as its new chairperson. Yin retired from his position at CAA in July last year. Previously, he served as director general at the Department of Railways and Highways under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications as well as director-general of the Department of Aviation and Navigation. The company said Yin will replace the current chairman, Kuo Tsai Wen (郭蔡文), who will assume a post as chairman of China Engineering Consultants. The company said that Yin is familiar with the civil aviation industry and is able to lead the company to launch several major projects, including the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s third terminal and third runway.
ENTERTAINMENT
Film to be screened in US
A Taiwanese film featuring a cross-country scooter brigade of octogenarians will make its debut in the US at a film festival in San Francisco next month, the film’s director said yesterday. There will be two showings of Go Grandriders (不老騎士) during the Center for Asian American Media Festival, 31-year-old director Hua Tien-hao (華天灝) said. The film, the first feature-length documentary Hua has made, is based on the true story of 17 Taiwanese men, with an average age of 81, who embarked on a journey around the island by motorcycle to fulfill their dream of seeing every part of Taiwan. Two of them were cancer survivors, eight had heart diseases and four wore hearing aids. The movie’s box-office earnings in Taiwan alone reached NT$30 million (US$1 million), marking a record high for a documentary-like film.
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,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods