■ HEALTH
Bureau warns against treats
The Bureau of Health Promotion is reminding those watching their weight to avoid indulging in too many Moon Festival treats or to exercise more as the holiday approaches. Just one small, 60g mooncake can contain as many as 300 calories, the bureau said yesterday. The bureau suggests cutting back on one bowl of rice or walking briskly for one hour to compensate for each 60g mooncake consumed. The bureau warned consumers to be wary of pomelos as well. Although fruit is healthy, the popular treat that is a staple on the Moon Festival table contains more calories than most people suspect. The bureau said that just two segments of a pomelo can contain 60 calories and eating a whole jumbo pomelo can mean an extra 600 calories. This year's Moon Festival falls on Tuesday.
■ CULTURE
Confucius gets birthday bash
Taipei Confucian Temple is organizing a celebration of Confucius' 2,557th birthday, which falls on Friday next week, a temple official said yesterday. The temple will hold a cultural fair along Dalong Street by the temple on Thursday and Friday next week with exhibits on temples and archeological findings in Datong District, where the temple is located. A photo exhibit featuring the nation's Confucian temples will open at the Taipei temple on Thursday and Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) will lead a ceremony the next day in honor of the "supreme teacher," the official said. Confucian groups from Japan, South Korea and Vietnam have been invited by the temple to take part in a seminar on Sept. 29 and Sept. 30, the focus of which will be the impact of modernism on Confucianism and the future of Confucianism.
■ POLITICS
Nominees up for review
Lawmakers have reached a consensus on holding a vote next Thursday on whether to approve President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) nominations for the Judicial Yuan, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said on Tuesday after presiding over a consultative meeting of caucus whips from across party lines. The meeting agreed to hold three Committee of the Whole sessions to screen the nominees, with the Judicial Yuan presidential and vice presidential nominees to be screened today and the eight grand justice nominees to be screened tomorrow and on Wednesday, Wang said. The legislature plans to hold an extra session on Thursday to vote on the nominees, Wang said, adding that the vote on the Judicial Yuan presidential and vice presidential nominees would take place Thursday morning and the vote on the grand justice nominees would be held in the afternoon.
■ HEALTH
Officials push check-ups
The Taipei City Government yesterday encouraged residents to take advantage of Taipei Citizen Health cards and get free check-ups. The card, available since July, allows Taipei residents to receive a free health check-up after accumulating two card points by volunteering at local hospitals, receiving vaccines or attending forums on health-related issues. Card holders who earn 24 points are eligible for a free advanced health examination valued at NT$12,000 at any Taipei City Hospital branch, the city's Department of Health said. The department said only 27.8 percent of Taipei residents over the age of 65 visit their doctors for regular check-ups -- a figure the department hopes to raise through the points program. All registered Taipei residents are eligible for the card.
■ CRIME
Illegal butcher arrested
Prosecutors and police arrested a man yesterday during a raid on an illegal slaughter house in Tuku Township (土庫), Yunlin County. More than two tonnes of suspect beef, bones and offal were seized in four freezers in the slaughter house and in the house of the suspect, identified only by his surname, Wang. Investigators had been keeping tabs on Wang for nearly six months before staging the raid after being tipped off that Wang had been butchering sick cattle and selling them to meat wholesalers, vendors and meat processors. Wang was preparing to sell a large amount of the beef in the run-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls next Tuesday, according to the police.
■ CRIME
Woman hides as man
Police have arrested a female criminal who has been on the run disguised as a man for eight years, press reports said yesterday. Chen Hui-fang (陳慧芳), 33, was convicted eight years ago of armed burglary and Internet fraud but failed to turn herself in to serve her sentence. Chen disguised herself so well that even her girlfriend did not know that "he" was a she. To convince her girlfriend that she was a man, Chen tied a fake penis -- a condom filled with cotton -- between her thighs, press reports said. Over the years, Chen continued to commit crimes and was caught once, but police released her after questioning. When she was caught again on Monday, police realized that Chen was using a fake ID card and did not "look like" a man, because Chen had no Adam's apple and had no hair on her upper lip. When police threatened to take Chen for a medical examination to clarify her sex, she admitted her identity.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
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