HEALTH
Men not exercising enough
More than 60 percent of Taiwanese men do not exercise regularly, according to data released by research center Taiwan Biobank yesterday. Bad health habits have led to more than half the male population having a body mass index (BMI) higher than the normal range of 18.5 to 24. Among women, 70 percent were found to have a higher body fat rate than the standard level of 20 percent to 27 percent body fat, the organization said. Taiwan Biobank was established by the Academia Sinica to trace the causes of common diseases in the nation through the collection of voluntarily submitted personal health data. Inaugurated in 2012, the biobank has so far collected data from 25,000 people, including general health check results, interviews and blood and urine samples.
SCIENCE
Prizewinner to visit
Japanese scientist Tasuku Honjo, a co-winner of the first Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science, and his wife are to visit Taiwan for the award ceremony on Sept. 18. The 72-year-old chaired professor at Kyoto University shares the award with University of Texas immunology professor James Allison. They are to share a cash prize of NT$40 million (US$1.33 million) and each receive a medal and a certificate. The pair were honored for the discoveries of cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) and programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) as immune inhibitory molecules that led to their applications in cancer immunotherapy. During the Tang Prize Week from Sept. 15 to 21, there is to be a banquet for the laureates at the Grand Hotel in Taipei, a concert by the Taiwan Philharmonic and two exhibitions.
ENTERTAINMENT
Kai Ko may finish degree
Actor Kai Ko (柯震東) could hit the books full time to finish his bachelor’s degree now that his acting career has been put on hold following his arrest for reportedly using marijuana while in China. Ko, 23, told a Taipei news conference on Saturday that he is likely to focus on school, which he had suspended in favor of acting after he shot to fame in 2011 with the blockbuster You Are the Apple of My Eye (那些年,我們ㄧ起追的女孩). Ko’s agent, Angie Chai (柴智屏), said it was up to Ko to decide whether he would like to return to being a student or begin his compulsory military service. During his recent detention in Beijing, Ko said he had pondered quitting the entertainment business, but decided that he has an obligation to correct his mistakes and be a positive example to fans. He was arrested on Aug. 14 by Beijing police and admitted to smoking marijuana with fellow actor Jaycee Chan (房祖名), son of Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan (成龍).
NATIONAL DEFENSE
New helicopters draw crowd
Test flights of six new AH-64E Apache attack helicopters drew spectators to Greater Kaohsiung on Saturday, one day after the Ministry of National Defense took delivery of the aircraft from the US. The shipment was the fourth of five in a NT$59.31 billion (US$2.01 billion) order for 30 models, the ministry said. The final shipment is due next month. Friday’s delivery came six weeks after the army issued a report on the investigation in the crash of one of the new Apache’s on the top of a three-story residential building in Taoyuan County in April. In the July 15 report, the army said that environmental conditions and human error were found to be the main causes of the crash.
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