NATIONAL DEFENSE
Cabinet draws line on Line
The Cabinet has instructed public servants not to use messaging app Line to transmit sensitive information due to security concerns, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said yesterday. Jiang made the statement at the Legislative Yuan in response to a question from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆). Lai also asked if the government would prohibit civil servants from using handsets made by Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi Corp, which automatically transmit user data to the company’s servers in Beijing. Jiang said that the issue would be handed to the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Communications Commission for consideration, and that they “will make a decision in three months.” Minister of Science and Technology Simon Chang (張善政) said the built-in features of smartphones are the commission’s responsibility, while apps are to be checked by the Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Xiaomi has said that its handsets did transmit data to its Beijing server, but that the feature has been shut off since Aug. 10.
HEALTH
Dengue cases set record
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said that 511 indigenous cases of dengue fever were reported last week, the highest number in a single week. Epidemic Information Center Director Liu Ting-ping (劉定萍) said 495 of the new cases were reported in Greater Kaohsiung, while the others were in Pingtung and Changhua counties, Greater Tainan, Hsinchu, Changhua, Taipei and New Taipei City. As of Monday, 2,589 dengue cases had been reported nationwide this year — 160 imported and 2,429 indigenous, she said. The majority of indigenous cases — 2,415 — occurred in the summer, with 2,357 of them in Greater Kaohsiung, Liu said. The CDC said dengue tends to be more prevalent in southern Taiwan because of the higher rainfall there, urging doctors to be on high alert and treat patients with the mosquito-borne disease appropriately to avoid the risk of death.
DIPLOMACY
AIT chairman arrives today
American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt is to arrive today for a five-day visit, the AIT said yesterday. Burghardt is to meet with a number of senior political and business figures, the AIT said in a statement. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the announcement, saying that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would receive Burghardt to exchange views on issues of bilateral concern. “Taipei-Washington ties are at their best in 35 years, and Burghardt has played an important role,” the ministry said. The AIT said this is Burghardt’s 16th trip to Taiwan since his appointment as chairman in February 2006. Burghardt was director of the AIT’s Taipei office from 1999 to 2001.
CHARITY
Rummage sale at TAS
The Taipei American School (TAS) Orphanage Club is to host its 44th annual fall rummage sale on Saturday from 10am to 5pm. Club members have collected a large variety of new and used clothing and shoes for children and adults, toys, tools, games, electronic items and some furniture. The sale is to be held in the school’s forecourt and lobby, rain or shine. All of the proceeds will go to the club’s funds for needy children and orphans in Taiwan, the outlying islands and three African nations. TAS is at 800 Zhongshan N Rd Sec 6, Tianmu (天母).
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