HEALTH
Cancer cases increasing
One person was diagnosed with cancer in Taiwan every 5 minutes, 6 seconds in 2014, 12 seconds faster than the previous year, according to Health Promotion Administration data released on Thursday. In 2014, Taiwan saw 103,147 new cancer patients, an increase of 4,004 from the previous year, the agency said. For the ninth consecutive year, colon cancer was the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the nation, followed by lung, breast, liver and oral cancer, the agency said. It was the first time new breast cancer cases have outnumbered liver cancer cases. Rounding out the top 10 were prostate, gastric, skin, thyroid and esophageal cancers, the agency said. The age-standardized incidence rate was 303.8 out of every 100,000 people that year, or 341.4 out of every 100,000 men and 271.4 out of every 100,000 women. The 10 most common cancers among men were colon, liver, lung, oral, prostate, esophageal, gastric, skin and bladder cancers, as well as non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Among women, the top 10 were cancer of the breast, colon, lung, liver, thyroid, uterine corpus, ovaries, cervix, skin and stomach.
FISHERIES
FRI releases baby crabs
The government-run Fisheries Research Institute (FRI) on Wednesday released 150,000 baby Portunus pelagicus crabs, more popularly called the flower crab or sand crab, into the ocean off Penghu County’s Magong City as part of an ongoing effort to promote the sustainable use of marine resources. The baby crabs, each about 1cm to 2cm in size, were bred by the institute, FRI director Lin Chin-jung (林金榮) said. With its nutritious sweet meat, the sand crab is considered a delicacy, Lin said. At local markets, the crab sells for up to NT$700 per kilogram.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
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