HEALTH
Taipei sprayed for insects
Two districts in Taipei sprayed pesticides yesterday after the city confirmed its first case of dengue fever for the year the previous day, environmental officials said. A man who lives in Shilin District (士林) and studies in Xinyi District (信義) developed dengue fever symptoms, including fever and joint pain, on Friday last week after taking a school trip in northern Taiwan from Sept. 5 to Sept. 7. While the Taipei City Government Department of Health declined to reveal where the trip went, it said the student could have been infected in Taipei. As a result, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection sprayed pesticide in Shilin and Xinyi districts to prevent the virus from spreading. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the nation recorded 2,235 cases of dengue fever this year as of Thursday, with 2,083 of them being indigenous.
AVIATION
Airport expansion outlined
An upcoming expansion project of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport will increase the airport’s passenger capacity by 5 million people per year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said on Thursday during the Trinity Forum, a leading global airport commercial revenue conference being held in Taipei. The event was organized by Airports Council International (ACI), ACI Asia-Pacific and The Moodie Report. The project to enlarge the airport’s Terminal 2 is set to begin by the end of this year and is expected to be completed in 18 months, Yeh said. Last year, the airport received more than 30 million passengers, with an additional 1.5 million passengers expected this year, exceeding its design capacity, Yeh said. To ease congestion, the government is building a third terminal, which would increase annual capacity to 45 million people, he said. The design for the third terminal will start next year, with construction expected to be completed by 2020, the minister added.
HEALTH
Doctors link stroke to diet
A nine-year-old boy experienced a stroke recently due to his diet consisting largely of fast food, such as fried chicken and French fries, a doctor said. Huang Bing-wen (黃炳文), a doctor at Show Chwan Memorial Hospital in Changhua County, said the boy, who is 1.3m tall and weighs 31kg, comes from a family that does not have a history of strokes. His father told the physician that the boy leads a sedentary lifestyle, spending most of his time playing computer games and rarely exercising. The boy recently complained of nausea and dizziness. His father took him to see a doctor after he bumped into a bathroom basin. The doctor found that an artery in the boy’s brain was blocked by a clot and prescribed anti-clot drugs.
DEVELOPMENT
Nation ranked 21st
The nation ranked 21st among 188 countries in terms of how well its people are developing, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said. The agency used the methodology of the Huang Development Index compiled by the UN, which measures life expectancy, education and income to rank countries. The index was published by the UN Development Program, but the government collected the nation’s statistics and returned a score of 0.882. A score close to 1 is better, whereas a ranking closer to zero is not ideal. Norway was at the top of the list, with a score of 0.944, followed by Australia at 0.933 and Switzerland at 0.917.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
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