TOURISM
Halal certification unveiled
The Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) National Scenic Area Administration yesterday introduced a halal certification program for its restaurants in a bid to attract more Muslim visitors. Only one restaurant is currently certified to meet Islamic dietary laws in the mountainous area, the agency said. Local restaurateurs interested in obtaining halal certification are invited to a workshop scheduled on July 1 at the lakeside Fleur de Chine Hotel, it said. Organized in cooperation with Taiwan’s Chinese Muslim Association, the workshop is to include an introduction to Muslim culture, Islamic dietary requirements and management guides on developing Muslim-friendly practices.
HEALTH
Happy the gorilla dies
Happy, a gorilla at Taipei Zoo, died of multiple organ failure on Monday at the age of 49, which according to zoo officials equates to between 80 and 90 human years. In a statement released yesterday, the zoo said Happy was diagnosed with kidney failure during a health examination on Thursday last week. He was found to have developed symptoms including anemia, mouth cankers and uremia. The zoo decided to put the aging animal, which his keepers had nicknamed “Happy Grandpa,” into palliative care after consulting his medical team, the statement said. However, by that time, Happy could only make weak sounds and move his fingers a little, the zoo said. Happy fell unconscious early on Monday and died of cardiac arrest later that day. Happy is estimated to have been born in 1965, zoo data show. He was the longest-living mammal at Taipei Zoo, apart from Lin Wang (林旺), an Asian elephant that died in 2003 at the age of 85.
HEALTH
Encephalitis case confirmed
A man in Greater Taichung has been confirmed as the first locally contracted Japanese encephalitis case this year, health officials said yesterday. The 52-year-old man showed symptoms of fever, headache and lethargy on Sunday last week and sought treatment at the Chinese Medical University Hospital. By Friday last week, he began to feel disoriented and suffered paralysis in his limbs. The hospital alerted the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which confirmed the diagnosis. The man’s condition has stabilized and he is now in a regular ward. Family members of the man have shown no symptoms of the mosquito-borne disease. Health officials said that there are many parks and large drainage systems around the man’s home and that an investigation of possible mosquito breeding areas in the area was being carried out.
HEALTH
Ma’s brother-in-law dies
Ping Dan-he (馮丹龢), President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) brother-in-law, died yesterday after a medical emergency, sources at the Presidential Office confirmed. Ping, in his mid-70s, was the husband of Ma Yi-nan (馬以南), the president’s eldest sister. Ping was rushed to National Taiwan University Hospital, but never recovered from his ailment, the sources said, without providing details. The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported that he suffered a heart attack about two weeks ago. Ping worked for New York City’s subway administration before returning to Taiwan to help plan the Taipei rapid transit system. He later worked as a consultant for the subway project in Greater Kaohsiung. He is survived by Ma Yi-nan, who was born in 1945, and their two children.
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