HEALTH
Imported foods fail tests
US ham, French salad dressing, kimchi from South Korea and goji berries from China were among 16 products barred from entering Taiwan because they contained traces of banned drugs or excessive levels of preservatives and pesticides, the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday. The products, which also included dried chrysanthemums from Japan, dried penny bun mushrooms from France, green tea from Vietnam and corn and cactus extracts from the US, failed to pass border inspections, the administration said. The items have been destroyed or sent back to the countries from which they were exported, the agency said. The administration updates border inspection information on products banned from entering Taiwan every Wednesday.
CULTURE
Comedian seeks justice
Taiwanese comedian Kuo Tzu-chien (郭子乾), who suffered second-degree burns at a South Korean hotel in 2012, said he hopes to obtain justice in that country’s high court as a hearing got under way yesterday. At a press conference in Seoul, he displayed dated photographs of a kettle that he said was in his hotel room at the time of the incident that led to his injuries. Kuo said the bottom fell out of the kettle when he lifted it and he was burned by the just-boiled water inside. In the photographs, strips of tape can be seen running down the side of the kettle and cracks can be seen in its bottom. A Korean lower court rejected Kuo’s claims in August last year, ruling that his complaint was an attempt to discredit the hotel and obtain damages. Kuo said that the lower court had distorted the facts, adding that he filed an appeal in a higher court to defend his dignity and that of all Taiwanese.
HEALTH
Fatty liver rates spike
The incidence of fatty liver has spiked sharply in Taiwan over the past 20 years, with more than 60 percent of people over the age of 40 now suffering from the disease, a survey by Lianan Wellness Center released yesterday showed. The survey showed that 52.9 percent of people who had health checks last year were diagnosed with fatty liver disorder, compared with an incidence of 2.8 percent in 1993. Fatty liver disease is commonly associated with metabolic syndrome, atherosclerosis and obesity, Center director Cheng Nai-yuan (鄭乃源) said. The survey found that 93 percent of patients with the disorder had abnormal levels in at least three of the five metabolic syndrome indicators — waistline measurement, blood pressure, blood glucose, triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
ENTERTAINMENT
Singer to arrive on Sunday
Japanese singer, songwriter and actor Masaharu Fukuyama is set to visit Taiwan on Sunday to promote a concert and new album, the local promoter of the event announced yesterday. Fukuyama is to promote his “We’re Bros. Tour” concert in Taipei, as well as introduce his new album, Human — his 11th studio album and first in five years — according to Amuse Entertainment Taiwan Inc. Fukuyama’s concert is scheduled for June 7 at the Taipei Arena. It is to form part of a tour that also includes 14 concerts in Japan and two in Hong Kong. Tickets for the Taipei concert are to go on sale on March 1, Amuse Entertainment Taiwan said.
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
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
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