WEATHER
Stable weather to continue
The current stable weather pattern is likely to continue into next week, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Minimum temperatures could range from 15°C to 18°C in northern areas, while the nation’s southern areas could expect lows of between 18°C and 20°C, forecasters said. However, the bureau cautioned that some parts of the nation could see big fluctuations of up to 10°C a day. It said sunny skies can be expected across Taiwan for most of this week, with some clouds and occasional showers due to the influence of a seasonal front.
AGRICULTURE
Station to make supplement
Hualien District Agricultural Research and Extension Station yesterday said it will produce a dietary supplement, using its newly developed variety of bitter gourd that is said to have strong antioxidant properties. National Science Council researchers have found that the new bitter melon developed by the station is rich in vitamin C, folic acid and dietary fiber, which makes it perfect for use in a health product, they said. A local biotechnology company, which has gained approval to market the new variety of melon, plans to work with growers to increase output in order to meet demand in the mass production of the dietary supplement. The station said its next step is to work with academic institutions to develop a cancer cure from extracts of the melon.
HEALTH
FDA warns on bad equipment
The Department of Health’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned consumers against buying unlicensed medical equipment online and emphasized that eye contact lenses, as plain as they may seem, are also a kind of medical equipment that are required to be regulated and licensed by the government. According to recent media reports, some retailers who have been penalized for selling medical devices on auction and shopping Web sites have since turned to Facebook and continued to sell online, an action the FDA restated is illegal. The Pharmaceutical Affairs Act (藥事法) stipulates that medical equipment can be manufactured or imported only after the manufacturer or the importer has obtained a government-issued license, said the administration. Consumers are advised to use the medical-device database on the FDA’s official Web site to check for information about equipment, including product names, names of manufacturers and license numbers. Those who are in violation of the Act are subject to a penalty of up to NT$150,000 (US$5,000), the FDA said.
WATER
Cloud seeding planned
Cloud seeding may be started tomorrow to induce rain at Shihmen Reservoir in northern Taiwan, after water reserves there have dropped below the lowest level, a water resources official said yesterday. The procedure will be immediately implemented upon the arrival of a possible cold front that day, Chien Chao-chun (簡昭群) of the Water Resources Agency said. Chien urged the public to conserve water as the reservoir, which supplies water to Taoyuan and Hsinchu counties as well as to parts of New Taipei City (新北市), has seen its water drop below its lowest level of 232m. Water rationing has been started in Taoyuan County and New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口). Chien added the agency will call a meeting to discuss the possibility of further water rationing in northern Taiwan tomorrow.
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