■EDUCATION
MOE urges debt payment
The Ministry of Education (MOE) yesterday urged students to remember to pay off their student loans regularly. Tsai Chung-yi (蔡忠益), section chief of the MOE’s Department of Higher Education, said university presidents should pay extra attention to students’ bad debt and remind them that failure to pay their student loans would have a negative impact on their credit rating. The ministry’s call came after the latest MOE statistics showed that unpaid student debt had reached NT$4.4 billion (US$130.6 million) and was expected to exceed NT$4.5 billion by the end of the year. The majority of the bad debt came from private universities, with Feng Chia University, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Fu Jen Catholic University, Southern Taiwan University and Tamkang University topping the list, MOE statistics showed.
■HEALTH
Indoor air in spotlight
The legislative Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee yesterday commenced the first discussion on the pending indoor air quality management bill. However, no conclusions were reached and the committee decided to host follow-up meetings soon. As people on average spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors, the law will regulate maximum contents of pollutants in indoor air, such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, germs and methane. However, yesterday legislators were split on whether germs should be listed as a pollutant, whether hospitals and medical agencies should also be regulated by the proposed law and whether the Environmental Protection Administration possesses adequate equipment to assess indoor air quality. As such, the committee decided to hold a further meeting in the future to involve health authorities in the discussion.
■HEALTH
Hepatitis check for vendors
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced yesterday it would begin issuing “Hepatitis A-free” labels to food vendors at Shilin and Keelung night markets who have completed the CDC’s vaccine course. CDC spokesman Shih Wen-yi (施文儀) said that the program was aimed at assuring customers of hygiene standards, as hepatitis A can spread through water and food. There are approximately 200 new cases of Hepatitis A diagnosed each year. Shih said the CDC began to encourage vendors at the two night markets to get innoculated last year. Vendors who have had both shots will be issued the label. Shih also encouraged food vendors at other night markets to be vaccinated.
■CRIME
Cops nab money man
Police have arrested a 55-year-old man for lobbing bank notes worth about NT$1 million (US$29,600) from vehicles, causing disorder in the streets, an officer said yesterday. The man tossed the bills from a taxi in Taichung City on Sunday, causing people to pick up the cash, a Changhua police official said. He is believed to have thrown more money on an earlier road trip starting in Taipei. The man also burned about NT$400,000 and had two more sacks of cash, apparently the proceeds of a property sale, police said. Some passers-by who picked up the bills turned the money over to police, while others pocketed it, he said. The taxi driver turned the man in to police in Changhua County. The suspect was to be charged with public endangerment and destruction of currency, police said.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
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