SOCIETY
Eid al-Fitr acceptance urged
The Ministry of Labor yesterday encouraged employers to allow their Muslim workers to observe Eid al-Fitr on Sunday. The day, marking the end of Ramadan, is an important holiday for Muslims, like Lunar New Year in the Chinese-speaking community, the ministry said. It is crucial that employers respect the religious beliefs of their foreign workers to create a harmonious relationship between labor and management, it added. Meanwhile, the Taipei City Government is on Sunday to hold an Eid al-Fitr celebration at the Taipei Travel Plaza near the Taipei Railway Station, the city’s Foreign and Disabled Labor Office said. The nation is home to about 252,000 Indonesian workers, 85 percent of whom are Muslim, ministry data show.
HEALTH
Encephalitis recorded
A woman from Pingtung County has contracted Japanese encephalitis, becoming the fourth person to be infected with the mosquito-borne disease in Taiwan this year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The 53-year-old on May 26 sought medical treatment at a local hospital after experiencing fever and fainting, CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said. Because the symptoms persisted, she was transferred to another hospital for further treatment, Chuang said, adding that the case was then reported as suspected Japanese encephalitis to the local health authority along with samples for laboratory testing. The diagnosis was confirmed on Sunday. The woman had not recently traveled overseas, Chuang quoted the CDC as saying. However, there is a pigeon and poultry farm approximately 2km from the woman’s residence, Chuang said.
WEATHER
Rain eases, mercury rises
The mercury in the north is set to rise to 35°C tomorrow as a rain front hovering over the nation for the past five days gradually moves north, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday, adding that chances of heavy rain remain high nationwide today. Bureau forecaster Hus Chung-yi (徐仲毅) said the rain significantly eased yesterday as the front gradually moved north and a southwest jet stream weakened. For tomorrow, the bureau said that chances of showers and thundershowers would still be high in the center and south due to southwest winds, while sunny to cloudy skies and afternoon thundershowers are forecast for the rest of the nation. From tomorrow to Friday, the average temperature is to gradually rise to between 33°C and 34°C nationwide, while the north could see a high of 35°C.
SOCIETY
Former health minister dies
Former minister of health Shih Chun-jen (施純仁) died of a heart attack on Sunday at Taipei Veterans’ General Hospital at the age of 93. Shih, a native of Taichung, received his early education during the Japanese colonial period and graduated from National Taiwan University in 1947, majoring in medicine. He then joined the National Defense Medical Center, where he worked for 38 years. Shih did a two-year residency at the Montreal Neurological Institute in Canada from 1956 to 1958, after which he returned to Taiwan to help develop the field of neurosurgery and cofound the Taiwan Neurological Society in 1977. Shih served as the head of the general surgery department at Tri-Service General Hospital — the teaching hospital of the National Defense Medical Center — from 1975 to 1984 and headed the Department of Health (which in 2013 became the Ministry of Health and Welfare) from 1986 to 1990.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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