HEALTH
CDC warns about dengue
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday urged the public to take precautions against dengue fever, as the season for the mosquito-borne disease reaches its peak. As of Monday last week, there had been 162 cases of dengue fever reported in the nation this year, 87 of which were imported from countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, the center said. The threat from abroad seems to be increasing given that Southeast Asia has seen more cases than usual this year, the authority added. With the nation in the grip of the rainy season and a hot summer, stagnant water should be drained often as this is where mosquitoes that can carry the virus like to breed, the agency said.
CRIME
Locals arrested in Australia
Six Taiwanese men are facing life sentences after being charged with importing A$42 million (US$39 million) worth of methamphetamine into Australia, authorities there said yesterday. The men are due to face a Sydney court and could be given fines of more than A$1 million if convicted of importing 50kg of the illegal stimulant, Australian Federal Police said in a statement. Customs officials said they started their investigations when they inspected a consignment from China labelled as a “boiler” last month and found a “white crystalline substance” in it. The substance was revealed after tests to be methamphetamine, police said. The men, aged between 27 and 46, were arrested on Saturday after allegedly picking up the consignment in western Sydney and taking its contents to a hotel. They have been charged with the import and attempted possession of a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug. In a similar case earlier this year, four Taiwanese and one Australian were charged in February after police seized A$180 million worth of meth stashed in a consignment of kayaks from China.
CULTURE
Singapore screens local film
The Taiwanese documentary Twelve Nights (十 二夜), a film produced by best-selling author Giddens Ko (柯景騰), also known as Jiu Ba-dao (九把刀), was screened in Singapore on Saturday to raise awareness of animal rights in the city-state. The screening of the film, which focuses on the fate of dogs in shelters, was attended by more than 1,000 people — many accompanied by their dogs — at the outdoor Marina Barrage Green Roof. Twelve Nights records the lives of stray dogs at an animal shelter in Changhua County and its title refers to the number of days the dogs have to be adopted before being euthanized to make more space. The documentary grossed more than NT$60 million (US$2 million) at the Taiwanese box office during its run from November last year through February. The NT$20.91 million in proceeds the movie made after deducting taxes and the share paid to cinemas has been given to animal protection groups.
DIPLOMACY
Canadian legislators visit
A group of Canadian parliamentarians is to begin a six-day visit to Taiwan today to learn more about the development of bilateral ties and the nation’s political and economic environment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The cross-party delegation is headed by Canadian Member of Parliament Chris Warkentin and includes Canadian Senator Tobias Enverga Jr, both of the Conservative Party, the ministry said in a statement. The group is to meet with officials from the ministries of education and foreign and economic affairs, as well as local legislators, the foreign ministry said.
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:
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