■Customs
New passport to be issued
Taipei resident Kuo Yi-ming (郭怡銘) will get the coveted first copy of the nation's new passport to be issued Sept. 1, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday. The ministry's Bureau of Consular Affairs conducted a random, computerized draw yesterday to decide who will get the first 100 new passports. Kuo was one of 3,017 people who had filed applications for the new passports between Aug. 1 and Thursday. Kuo said he was excited to hear he would get the very first new passport. "It came as a surprise to me. I'm more than happy," he said by phone. The new version of the passport will have the word "Taiwan," in addition to the name Republic of China on its cover.
■ Health
Officials hope for SARS test
The Department of Health hopes that a system for diagnosing SARS within three hours will be established in early October, an official said yesterday. Center for Disease Control Director General Su Yi-jen (蘇益仁) said a new diagnostic system will be useful in distinguishing cases of SARS from the flu, especially in the autumn, when approximately 1 million people in the country suffer from colds and flu each year. Research is being done at home and abroad to make an early establishment of the system possible, he said. The government will encourage people to stay at home for three days when they have cold symptoms or those of the flu. They should, however, seek medical treatment if they have symptoms of pneumonia or have difficulty in breathing.
■ Education
Seven win scholarship
The American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (AmCham) and the Strategic Executive Search Group (SES) yesterday announced the latest winners of the AmCham/SES Scholarship for high-school students. The scholarship was established to provide gifted students from financially challenged families a chance to reach their true academic and leadership potential. This year's winners are Tsang Chia-fen, Hsiao Hung-wei, Lan Ling-erh, Chiu Yu-chen, Wang Jen-hua, Chang Chiu-fu, and Kuo Ping-jang. The scholarship will pay the tuition fees for the seven students for the rest of their high-school years.
■ Utilities
Taipower says don't fret
The Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) instructed its departments yesterday to ensure a sufficient and safe supply of electricity following a power outage that struck cities in northern US and Canada Thursday. Taiwan also suffered a massive blackout that darkened almost the entire island on July 29, 1999. The power outage was caused by the collapse of a transmission tower in Tainan County, as a result of a landslide due to heavy rainfall in the region. Taipower spokesman Lee Ching-tien (李錦田) said yesterday that the reserve capacity of the nation's electricity supply system has reached 14.7 percent this year, a considerable improvement over last year. Lee said there will be no shortage of electricity supply this summer, as long as no natural disasters hit the country.
Agencies
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
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