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Virus Outbreak: Experts advise schools on coronavirus

NEW SEMESTER:Surfaces should be disinfected more often, windows should be left open and everyone should avoid eating with their hands, the NTU experts said
A person reads the policy for child mask purchases outside a drugstore in Taipei yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center announced on Monday that starting tomorrow children under the age of 12 would be able to buy four surgical masks per week, up from two per week.Photo: CNA
Health experts at National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday urged schools to open windows in classrooms, pull desks wider apart, and lower the definition of a fever to a body temperature higher than 37.4°C when schools start next week, to better prevent COVID-19 infection.

NTU College of Public Health dean Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權) said that disease prevention in schools should be divided into two stages, with the first being the “containment” stage, which includes postponing the start of school and quarantining suspected cases to delay the possibility of COVID-19 spreading locally.

The second stage is the “mitigation” stage, meaning lessening the seriousness of the epidemic by practicing enhanced infection control measures on campuses after school starts or suspending classes if an outbreak occurs.

As schools up to and including senior high begin the new semester on Tuesday next week, two weeks later than originally planned, the NTU College of Public Health yesterday gave suggestions on how to improve disease prevention measures on campus.

Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene associate professor Chen Jia-kun said that good ventilation in classrooms is an important preventive measure, so schools should avoid using classrooms with no windows, as many air-conditioners only circulate indoor air.

“Under good natural ventilation, the air exchange rate [the rate at which outdoor air replaces indoor air within a room] is about 60 seconds,” he said. “Classroom windows should be open for at least one to three minutes for every 20 minutes of class, even in cold weather.”

Increasing the distance between individuals during social interaction helps prevent virus transmission, Chan said, adding that he suggests pulling students’ desks at least 1.8m apart, avoiding sports with physical contact and making students take recess in turns to avoid crowded playgrounds.

Schools should disinfect desk surfaces, doorknobs, windows and keyboards more frequently; keep lids on trash cans; and ask students and faculty to avoid eating with their hands; and wash their hands with soap often, he said.

“Students and faculty should also be responsible ... by not going to school when they feel ill and wearing a mask when seeking medical attention,” Chan said, adding that faculty should be highly cautious and take preventive measures other than measuring their temperature.

Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine director Su Ta-chen (蘇大成) said that the standard for detecting a fever should be modified to a body temperature of 37.5°C or higher.

If a person has had their temperature taken twice, at least five minutes apart, and it is 37.5°C or more on both occasions, they should be observed for respiratory symptoms, wear a mask when seeking medical attention and stay home to rest, he said.

Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) yesterday said that the Central Epidemic Command Center has suggested that the Ministry of Education use a fever standard of 37.5°C or higher when measuring with a forehead thermometer and 38°C or higher when measuring with an ear thermometer.

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Virus Outbreak: Airlines cancel Southeast Asia flights over outbreak

CHANGES:Foreign and domestic airlines’ flights to and from Singapore; Can Tho, Da Nang, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam; and Penang in Malaysia are to be affected
A poster released by the Central Epidemic Command Center on Saturday shows the government’s three-tier travel advisory system for destinations with different alert levels.Photo: Wu Liang-yi, Taipei Times
Several airlines have canceled flights to and from Southeast Asian nations amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Singapore Airlines on Monday announced that it would cancel a total of 28 flights between Singapore and Taipei from Monday next week to May 8.

They include its SQ878/SQ879 flights on Monday next week, March 8 and March 10, and the SQ876/SQ877 flights on March 31.

Its SQ878/SQ879 flights would also be canceled on April 12, from April 14 to April 29, on May 1 and from May 3 to May 8.

Starlux Airlines, which launched flight services on Jan. 23, yesterday announced that it would cancel its JX1701/JX1702 flights between Taipei and Da Nang, Vietnam, from Monday next week to March 31, but its JX701/JX702 flights between Taipei and Da Nang would continue to run daily.

The airline usually offers one flight to Penang, Malyasia, and one flight to Da Nang daily.

Affected passengers can change their tickets or ask for a refund, the airline said.

VietJet Air announced that its flights to Ho Chi Minh City departing from Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung would be subject to adjustments from today to Feb. 29.

Its VJ867/VJ866 flights between Taipei and Can Tho, Vietnam, would be canceled from today to March 28. Its VJ943/VJ942 flights between Taipei and Hanoi are to be canceled on Friday and Saturday, as well as on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday next week, the airline said.

Vietnamese airline Bamboo Airways said it would cancel flights between Taipei and Hanoi on March 9, March 16, March 23 and March 30.

EVA Airways and China Airlines have also announced that they plan to cancel flights between Taipei and Singapore.

EVA said that it would cancel its BR225/BR226 flights from March 2 to March 4, March 18 to March 19 and on March 24, as well as its BR215/BR216 flights from March 5 to March 12, March 16 to March 17, on March 23, March 25 to March 26 and on March 31.

China Airlines said that it would cancel flights from March 3 to March 6 and on March 8.

In related news, Japan Airlines announced yesterday that it would cancel its JL815/JL814 flights between Taipei and Osaka from March 5 to March 23, except JL815 flights on March 8 and March 19, and JL814 flights on March 9 and March 20.

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title: Virus Outbreak: Kaohsiung hotels seeking ways to cut costs

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The COVID-19 outbreak in China has hit both foreign and domestic tourist arrivals in Kaohsiung, leading major hotels in the city to suspend or downsize operations to reduce costs as they wait for a rebound.

Lees Boutique Hotel (麗景飯店) and the Taroko Park outlet of Holiday Garden Hotel (華園飯店) have suspended operations for one to two months.

Poor occupancy rates prompted Holiday Garden to temporarily close the Taroko Park property and send customers to its outlet near Liuhe Night Market (六合夜市), hotel officials said.

That property has proven relatively resilient, with occupancy rates of 50 percent, thanks to business guests and discount offers that reduced room rates by 15 percent to NT$1,999 (US$66.36) per night, the officials said.

The hotel has also attracted guests from foreign baseball teams that are holding player training in Kaohsiung.

However, the family-focused Taroko Park outlet, next to Taroko park and Suzuka Circuit Park, has suffered from its less convenient location, even with the government extending schools’ winter break through this week as part of efforts to curb the spread of the virus.

Taiwanese are avoiding going out and traveling domestically, because of concerns over the outbreak.

Lees Boutique has moved its customers to the nearby Lees Hotel (麗尊酒店) as a way of trimming costs.

The hotel group said it has no intention of shutting down the boutique property permanently, but is adopting makeshift measures to cope with the drastic decline in the market.

Staff layoffs or unpaid leave are not an issue. and there is no timetable for resuming full operations at the boutique, it said.

Grand Hi-Lai Hotel (漢來大飯店), one of the biggest hotels in the city, has closed off half of its 20 floors and encouraged employees to take unused leave after occupancy plummeted to 30 percent this month.

The hotel is offering special room rates of NT$2,800 per day and room upgrades for guests who stay at the hotel by the end of next month.

Silks Club (晶英國際行館), the city’s most expensive hotel, yesterday launched a special program to encourage long stays at its presidential suites, priced at NT$22,000 per night for an entire month.

TAIPEI OFFERS

The promotion follows its affiliate Regent Taipei’s announcement that it would provide gift coupons worth NT$8,000 for all guests who stay at the five-star hotel for NT$6,000 per night.

The Palais de Chine (君品酒店), near Taipei Railway Station, has introduced monthly room rates of NT$45,000 for guests from now on until June 30, which is about 80 percent off its regular monthly rate.

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title: United stun Chelsea 2-0 to close gap

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United stun Chelsea 2-0 to close gap

QUESTIONABLE LINEUP:Frank Lampard again picked Willy Caballero to start instead of Kepa Arrizabalaga, while forward Michy Batshuayi failed to find the goal
Chelsea’s Mason Mount, right, battles for the ball with Manchester United’s Luke Shaw in their Premier League match at Stamford Bridge in London on Monday.Photo: AP
Manchester United on Monday moved to within three points of fourth-placed Chelsea with a smash-and-grab 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge thanks to goals from Anthony Martial and Harry Maguire.

Chelsea had two goals disallowed by video assistant referee (VAR) reviews and were furious Maguire was not sent off early on for an off-the-ball kick out at Michy Batshuayi.

However, Blues boss Frank Lampard cut a frustrated figure as flaws in both boxes, which have seen his side win just four of their past 14 Premier League games, were exposed once more against ordinary opposition.

Victory lifted United up to seventh and within two points of Tottenham Hotspur in fifth, which could be good enough to qualify for the UEFA Champions League next season pending Manchester City’s appeal again a two-season ban from European competition.

Lampard made a bold call before kickoff by again dropping the most expensive goalkeeper in soccer history, Kepa Arrizabalaga, to the bench in favor of 38-year-old Willy Caballero.

Batshuayi also started with Tammy Abraham ruled out by injury and Lampard’s anger at missing out on a striker in last month’s transfer window was borne out by a poor night for the misfiring Belgium forward.

Chelsea suffered another injury blow early on when N’Golo Kante hobbled off and the France FIFA World Cup winner is now a doubt to face Bayern Munich in the Champions League next week.

The loss of Kante did not disrupt the home side’s early rhythm, as Reece James and Willian fired just wide.

Chelsea were then furious Maguire somehow escaped without being sent off for kicking Batshuayi after the two collided in front of the dugouts.

The former Olympique de Marseille attacker then squandered the first of a host of chances by firing wide from Mason Mount’s cutback.

Chelsea’s sense of injustice increased when Willian was harshly booked for diving as he went down under a challenge from Bruno Fernandes looking for a penalty.

United had not made Caballero make a single save before going in front a minute before the break when Martial planted a brilliant header into the far corner from Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross.

There was still time for Batshuayi to miss another chance before halftime when he skewed wide from a narrow angle.

The one-way traffic continued at the start of the second period as Mount hit the post and a brave block from Wan-Bissaka deflected Pedro’s goal-bound effort behind.

However, even when Chelsea did get the ball in the net through substitute Kurt Zouma, the goal was ruled out by VAR for a push on Brandon Williams by Cesar Azpilicueta.

Fernandes was unable to make much of an impact from open play in his second United appearance since a ￡47 million (US$61 million) move from Portugal’s Sporting.

Yet, the Portugal international is a huge threat from set-pieces and nearly caught Caballero out with a free-kick that crashed back off the post.

Just moments later, Fernandes provided his first assist for the Red Devils with a corner that Maguire powered home.

Lampard had seen enough from Batshuayi and handed Olivier Giroud a rare appearance off the bench for the final quarter.

The French striker thought he had given Chelsea a lifeline with a near-post header, but was ruled offside after a VAR review.

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title: How to keep infection clusters from happening

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The business trip of a Briton, who contracted COVID-19 at an international conference in Singapore, turned him into a super-spreader — with an infection cluster stretching out from Singapore to France, England and Spain — and prompting the city-state to heighten its outbreak alert level in a bid to prevent the coronavirus from spreading further.

Compared with Singapore, Taiwan has not yet seen cluster or community infections, but it remains to be seen whether the nation’s first asymptomatic COVID-19 case — confirmed on Feb. 9 — would make it more difficult for the government to contain the outbreak.

There is evidence that COVID-19 transmission is similar to that of influenza, which is mainly spread by droplet, contact and airborne transmission.

As COVID-19 is highly contagious, the government does not dare to overlook its ability to spread if the coronavirus strikes the nation, which is why the authorities are doing everything possible to contain the outbreak and prevent it from developing beyond any imported cases.

With the help of Google’s PageRank algorithm and based on daily commute data collected in a census, our team — comprised of ourselves and National Taiwan University Department of Geography professor Wen Tzai-hung (溫在弘) — presented an epidemic risk index in an article titled “EpiRank: Modeling Bidirectional Disease Spread in Asymmetric Commuting Networks,” which was published last year in the journal Scientific Reports.

Focusing on new epidemics that emerge continually across the globe, our team evaluated and ranked the infection risk of the nation’s 353 townships when exposed to outbreaks.

The paper shows that the epidemic risk evaluation index is highly related to the actual spread of new epidemics over the years, such as enterovirus outbreaks, which have ravaged the nation for 20 years and posed a fatal risk to children since 1998; the 2003 SARS outbreak, which originated in China’s Guangdong Province and claimed 73 lives in Taiwan; and the A(H1N1) influenza outbreak in 2009.

The results of the study demonstrate that the primary areas of infection after a new epidemic strikes Taiwan are the many administrative divisions in Taipei and New Taipei City, where mass transportation is well-developed.

With the support of scientific research and objective evidence, we, as a research team specializing in the computer simulation of epidemics, want to call on the public to fully support the government’s each and every preventive measure against COVID-19.

As the outbreak has not yet developed to the stage of a cluster or community infection in Taiwan, the limited resources for disease prevention and medical treatment should be prioritized for frontline medical personnel.

Meanwhile, the epidemic risk index for townships can serve as a reference when allocating limited medical treatment resources to potential areas of infection in case a COVID-19 outbreak occurs.

More advanced medical resources should be concentrated in the administrative areas that are more vulnerable to an epidemic, as well as the nation’s political and economic centers.

In this way, the nation would be able to fully contain COVID-19 in an early stage and eliminate the possibility of it spreading.

Huang Chung-yuan is a professor at Chang Gung University’s Graduate Institute of Computer Science and Information Engineering. Chin Wei-chien is a research fellow at Singapore University of Technology and Design.

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The man who conquered Yale is now taking on climate change

After making his alma mater one of the world’s richest universities,
Dean Takahashi is putting his skills toward making carbon-negative tech
Dean Takahashi — No. 2 at the Yale Investment Office, which manages the university’s US$30 billion endowment fund — woke up early one morning last summer and turned to his wife.

“I had a great idea: kelp,” he said.

The idea had occurred to him overnight: What if he were to pack kelp into large, carbon-storing cubes, encase them in durable Roman-style concrete and drop them into the deep sea?

The slimy strands of seaweed are some of the world’s most efficient absorbers of carbon.

“Kelp grows really fast and it dies every year,” Takahashi said.

Compressing that kelp and sinking it down to the ocean floor would effectively keep that carbon from escaping into the atmosphere, helping to slow the global warming process.

He had been intrigued by climate change for years, although his wife, Wendy Sharp, said that he has always been full of creative ideas.

Along with the head of the Yale Investment Office, legendary investor David Swensen, the 62-year-old Takahashi is known for seeing what others do not.

The two worked side by side for 33 years, and together built a new model for institutional investing that moved far away from plain-vanilla stocks and bonds toward private equity, hedge funds, and even timber forests.

Their strategy helped the endowment grow to its record high, from about US$1 billion before he began.

Then last summer, Takahashi announced that he was leaving the office to start a new Carbon Containment Lab at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Its long-term goal is to offset at least 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by the end of the century, but it also aims to create solutions capable of balancing out more than 10 million tonnes of emissions by 2030.

“Even I could not have predicted such a radical second act,” Sharp says of her husband’s career turn. “It has been a long time since I’ve seen Dean this intellectually passionate about something.”

William Nordhaus, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2018 for his work on the “global interplay between the economy and the climate” and chairs a task force that recommended that Yale establish a carbon charge on campus, sits on Takahashi’s board.

Jeremy Grantham, who cofounded the investment firm Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo and is devoting almost his entire fortune of more than US$1 billion to combat climate change, said that his foundation offered to donate to the Carbon Containment Lab.

Takahashi told him that he did not need it — he had already raised enough.

The money came from friends and other supporters, and it was enough for the lab to get by for seven or eight years, Takahashi said.

Grantham said that he still offered a US$500,000 IOU in case the lab needs it.

Takahashi is an economist by training and an investor by profession — in other words, not a scientist.

His first four hires started last month and he is planning to recruit as many as eight more with a range of expertise.

He is looking to steer the science coming out of his lab toward solutions that can scale and thus have a bigger impact on reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

“What’s different here is the opportunity to connect those potential solutions with such an incredible depth of investment knowledge and such a track record of making important things happen,” Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies dean Ingrid Burke said. “That’s where the power of this idea lies.”

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Advocates hold placards and banners at a news conference in Taipei yesterday to promote a street march scheduled for Saturday to mark the 228 Incident.Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
A memorial square is to be built on National Taiwan University’s (NTU) campus in honor of democracy advocate Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), the NTU Student Association said yesterday.

Chen, an NTU graduate and assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, was found dead on the campus on July 3, 1981, a day after being questioned by the Taiwan Garrison Command.

In 2011, the Dr Chen Wen-chen Memorial Foundation wrote to NTU about raising a monument in his honor, but received no response, the association said, adding that a student proposal sent to the Gallery of NTU History in 2012 also went unanswered.

Following the passage of proposals for the name of the memorial square and a monument at university affairs meetings in 2014 and 2015, a call for designs was made in 2016, but funding became an issue the following year, it said.

While former NTU president Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池) had promised that the university would cover half of the costs, NTU president Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) has refused to allow the university to fund or raise funds for the project, or help promote the foundation’s fundraising campaign due to the “political sensitivity” of the issue, the association said.

Nevertheless, the foundation has raised the NT$12 million (US$398,340) needed for the memorial square, the association said, adding that a donation agreement was signed with NTU on Monday.

The association said that it saw how the legacy of the authoritarian system endures in today’s democratic society when advocating for the construction of the memorial.

The truth has yet to be made public and justice has not been served, it said, adding that it hopes the memorial would prevent Chen’s death from being forgotten.

In related news, an annual event held by the foundation, the Taiwan Gongsheng Youth Association and 44 other groups to commemorate the 228 Incident, which is to mark its 73rd anniversary this year, is to return for its fourth edition.

This year, organizers said that they plan on marching past several historical sites related to the Incident, including Taipei’s Rixin Elementary School, the Tianma Tea House (天馬茶房) and the now-defunct Taiwan Province Monopoly Bureau’s Taipei branch.

During the march, participants are to read the names of the Incident’s victims and use sign language to perform poetry communicating the “silent voices” of the victims and their families, they said.

Through the event, organizers said that they hope to continue urging those in power to achieve transitional justice and the public to “refuse to forget and insist on resisting.”

Additional reporting by Peng Wan-hsin

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title: Chen Wen-chen memorial square to be built at NTU


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Five German companies in the cosmetics industry are visiting Taiwan this week in the hope of making inroads in the local market, the German Trade Office Taipei said yesterday.

Their visit aims to create a platform for Taiwanese companies looking for new brands, suppliers and business partners in Germany and to help facilitate their entry into the German cosmetics market, as well as the European market, said the office, which organized the trip.

With a total turnover of almost 4 billion euros (US$4.32 billion at the current exchange rate) in 2018 and average annual growth rates of 4.1 percent since 2013, Taiwan is an attractive market for German brands, German Trade Office Taipei Executive Director Axel Limberg told a news conference at the Sherwood Taipei, where the companies were showcasing their products.

There is great potential for skin care products, which accounted for more than 51 percent of the total turnover, as well as products such as color cosmetics, perfumes and fragrances, he said.

Taiwanese consumers have shown a growing demand for premium products made of natural ingredients and produced in an environmental-friendly way, so German-made cosmetics have great potential, he said.

The five companies are Alphachem, a service provider for regulatory affairs; Babiel Cosmetics GmbH, a luxury hair care line; Dullberg Konzentra GmbH & Co KG, a manufacturer of creative fragrances and essential oils; Legart Forschungsatelier, a 100 percent organic facial skin-care brand; and Weyergans High Care AG, which produces care products, patented cosmetics and medical applications.

The visit is an opportunity to bring Taiwanese and German cosmetics firms together and strengthen bilateral ties, Limberg said.

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title: German cosmetic industry firms on visit to Taiwan


title: Nan Shan told to explain demerits

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The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday demanded that Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) explain punishment it meted out to senior managers based on a request from a major shareholder, saying that the decision hurt the firm’s corporate governance.

The insurer on Saturday last week announced that it was handing demerits to vice chairman Yin Chung-yao (尹崇堯) and general manager Hsu Miao-chiu (許妙靜) at the request of board member Samuel Yin (尹衍樑), chairman of Ruentex Group (潤泰集團) and Yin Chung-yao’s father.

Samuel Yin asked for the penalty after Nan Shan posted full-year revenue for last year that saw it fall to third place among local peers, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported, citing an official document sent in the name of Yin Chung-Yao.

Nan Shan was last year expected to surpass Cathay Life Insurance Co (國泰人壽) in terms of full-year sales, but it was barred by the commission from selling investment-linked policies due to problems found in its new “Envision Project” information technology system, which negatively affected its business, the newspaper said.

Nan Shan’s first-year premiums last year totaled NT$164 billion (US$5.4 billion), lagging behind Fubon Life Insurance Co’s (富邦人壽) NT$206 billion and Cathay Life’s NT$201 billion, commission data showed.

“The decision to impose the punishment was neither discussed in a board meeting nor made in line with internal control regulations,” FSC Insurance Bureau Chief Secretary Lin Yao-tung (林耀東) told a news conference in New Taipei City.

Companies can explain to major shareholders why their sales have declined, but they should not make major decisions based on the opinion of a single board member without holding a board meeting, the bureau said.

“Nan Shan later told us that the punishment should be invalidated and that it would revoke the penalties,” Lin said.

The company needs to provide further explanation before Friday, he said.

Nan Shan yesterday said that it would soon clarify the incident with the regulator.

Nan Shan’s first-year premiums last month declined 36 percent year-on-year to NT$12.81 billion, company data showed.

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Taiwanese researchers develop bionic AI chip to supercharge unmanned drones

清華研發仿視神經AI晶片 無人機續航力大升級

A fruit fly is pictured within analytical equipment at National Tsing Hua University in undated photograph.
一隻果蠅於清華大學的分析設備裡面，拍攝日期不詳。Photo courtesy of National Tsing Hua University
照片：國立清華大學提供

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Inspired by fruit flies, an interdisciplinary research team of professors from National Tsing Hua University’s departments of Electrical Engineering and Life Sciences have developed a bionic optical nerve artificial intelligence (AI) chip that will allow unmanned aerial vehicles to automatically avoid flying obstacles while operating in low power energy-saving mode. The group’s invention will allow aerial drones to conserve battery power, but the researchers expect the chip will also have a broad range of applications in the technology of the future, including self-driving cars, smart glasses and robotic arms.

According to the researchers, in the past autonomous devices would avoid flying obstacles by continually sending and receiving electromagnetic and infrared pulses, but this method puts a significant demand on battery power. Scientists explored using an optical lens to photograph and analyze images as an alternative solution. However, processing the large quantity of image data at a fast enough rate proved difficult.

Samuel Tang, a professor at the University’s Department of Electrical Engineering, says that the team had to find a way to surmount the current limitations of AI technology, and turned to the natural world for inspiration. The team enlisted the help of Lo Chung-chuan, a professor specializing in the brains of fruit flies at the university’s Institute of Systems Neuroscience, and replicated the insect’s optical nerve to develop an energy-saving, highly efficient AI chip.

The researchers still had to overcome the problem of overloading the unmanned aerial vehicles’s processor with a vast amount of data. The sensor captured approximately 30 frames per second of visual data. If each frame were to be processed, not only would this be ineffective but it would drain the drone’s battery in a matter of minutes. Tang says that the cameras on modern smartphones capture pictures made of tens of millions of pixels, whereas a fruit fly only captures about 800 pixels. After the fruit fly’s brain receives an outline image, contrast and other basic sensory information, it filters out any unimportant data.

Lo says that the secret behind the fruit fly’s ability to detect movement in the air is the luminous flux created by moving organisms. These light trails in the surrounding sky are picked up within fly’s field of vision. The fly’s brain then analyzes these trails of light to understand the distance of objects in the surrounding environment. The same process applied to unmanned aerial vehicles allows them to avoid flying into obstacles, says Lo.

(Translated by Edward Jones, Taipei Times)

國立清華大學電機、生科教授組成跨領域團隊，利用果蠅，研發仿生物視覺神經的AI晶片，讓無人機以超省電狀態自動閃避障礙物飛行，不僅讓無人機以省電方式續電，未來還可廣泛應用在無人車、智慧眼鏡、機器手臂等領域。

清大團隊指出，無人裝置過去多利用發射並接收反射的電磁波、紅外線等來避開障礙物，卻很耗電，因此科學家想到用光學鏡頭來拍攝並分析影像來避障，但需要處理的影像資訊量太大，速率難以提升。

專研仿神經系統的清華大學電機系教授鄭桂忠認為，要突破目前人工智慧發展的限制，就要向生物界找靈感，於是找研究果蠅大腦的系統神經科學研究所教授羅中泉，利用果蠅的視神經系統，研發出仿昆蟲視覺的省電、高效率AI晶片。

而且要讓無人機學會像果蠅一樣避障飛行，就要解決電腦負荷資訊量太龐大問題。動態視覺每秒約有三十幀畫面，如看到的每幀畫面都要分析處理，不僅沒效率，可能幾分鐘就沒電了。鄭桂忠說，現在的相機、手機鏡頭動輒都是上千萬像素，但果蠅的眼睛大約只有八百像素，牠的大腦在處理收到的輪廓、對比等視覺訊號時，會自動過濾掉不重要的資訊。

羅中泉說，果蠅如何偵測「光流」的秘密，「光流」就是生物移動時周遭景物在視野中所留下的相對運動軌跡，大腦可藉由分析光流來了解周遭物體的距離；應用在無人機上，就能在飛行時避開障礙物。

(自由時報記者洪美秀)

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Virus Outbreak: WHO urges calm as China virus death toll nears 1,900 and over 72,000 infected

Boys wearing masks, gloves and modified water bottles sit on a cart at the airport arrival terminal in Guangzhou, China, on Feb. 1.Photo: EPA-EFE
The death toll from the COVID-19 outbreak rose again yesterday, but Chinese and international health officials sought to calm global nerves, citing a study showing most cases are mild and warning against excessive measures to contain the epidemic.

Nearly 1,900 people have died and more than 72,000 people have been infected by the outbreak in China, with hundreds more cases in 25 countries.

The epidemic has sparked panic-buying in Singapore and Hong Kong, concerns about cruise-ship travel, and the postponement of trade fairs, sports competitions and cultural events in China and abroad.

The outbreak is threatening to put a dent in the global economy, with China paralyzed by vast quarantine measures and major firms, such as iPhone maker Apple Inc and mining giant BHP Group, saying it could damage bottom lines.

Several countries have banned travelers from China and major airlines have suspended flights.

The WHO, which has said travel restrictions were unnecessary, rejected the suggestion that all cruises should be halted after hundreds of passengers were infected on one vessel off Japan.

“Measures should be taken proportional to the situation. Blanket measures may not help,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland.

The WHO has praised China for taking drastic measures to contain the virus. Beijing has placed about 56 million people in Hubei Province under an unprecedented lockdown.

Other cities far from the epicenter have restricted the movements of residents, while Beijing ordered people arriving in the capital to undergo a 14-day self-quarantine.

The official death toll in China hit 1,868 yesterday after another 98 people died, mostly in Hubei and its capital, Wuhan, where the virus emerged in December last year.

There were nearly 1,900 new cases yesterday — a drop from the previous day. Reported new infections have been falling in the rest of the nation for the past two weeks.

However, Tedros said that it was too early to tell if the decline would continue.

The situation remains dire at the epicenter, with the director of a Wuhan hospital becoming the latest medical worker to fall victim to the virus.

Wuchang Hospital director Liu Zhiming (劉智明) died yesterday morning after “all-out rescue efforts failed,” China Central Television reported.

A study released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that among 72,000 confirmed, suspected and clinically diagnosed cases showed that 81 percent of patients had only mild infections. Those most at risk were the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions.

The study also showed that the death rate stood at 2.3 percent, falling below 1 percent for people in their 30s and 40s.

Chinese epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan (鍾南山) told reporters that 85 percent of patients can improve “if they have good life support, treatment conditions and nutrients.”

Another 88 people tested positive for the virus on the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship off Yokohama, Japan, raising the number of infections to 542.

The new cases are to be sent to specialized hospitals, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said in a statement, without giving further details such as their nationalities.

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By Wang Chieh and Dennis Xie / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Tainan District Court on Wednesday last week sentenced a volunteer soldier who sold unlicensed cartoon stickers on an online platform to 50 days in prison for contravening the Trademark Act (商標法), saying that her selling counterfeit and pirated goods could tarnish Taiwan’s international reputation regarding intellectual property rights.

The 23-year-old soldier, surnamed Liu (劉) and who lives in Tainan, opened an online shop on e-commerce platform Shopee two years ago and began selling stickers and pins featuring famous Japanese cartoon characters that she purchased on Chinese online shopping service Taobao, with each item priced between NT$40 and NT$50, the court said.

The popularity of her business was noticed by police, who identified the pirated products after consulting the legal owners of the characters’ trademarks, including Japanese firms Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions Co and Sanrio Co, it said.

Police searched Liu’s home in February last year, finding 600 pirated products, it added.

Liu infringed on the rights of the trademark owners, and her trade in counterfeit and pirated goods posed a risk of influencing other nations’ perception of Taiwan regarding intellectual property rights, the court said.

In addition, Liu has not reached settlements with the trademark owners, it said.

However, as Liu has no prior criminal record and has paid all of her illicit gains to the court, totaling NT$10,780, she was sentenced to 50 days in jail, which can be commuted to a fine of NT$1,000 per day in prison, the court said.

Article 97 of the act stipulates that anyone who knowingly sells another person’s goods without permission shall be liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year and/or a fine not exceeding NT$50,000, with the same penalties applicable to acts performed through electronic media or on the Internet.

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title: Soldier jailed for selling counterfeit cartoon stickers


people: 蔡英文 習近平

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Virus Outbreak: Rapper’s new song slams WHO for barring Taiwan

Taiwanese rapper Dwagie (大支) blasts the WHO for excluding Taiwan in the global fight against the COVID-19 outbreak in his latest song released yesterday.

In the song titled WHO, which has with English lyrics, the rapper opens with the line: “Health for all, leaving no one behind,” which is the stated goal of the international organization.

However, the WHO has long excluded Taiwan from participation due to Chinese pressure, even though it is known globally for its medical expertise, he says in the song.

Dwagie criticized the global organization for thinking that “politics matter when human life is on the line.”

The song also accuses China of failing to do its job in preventing the outbreak, instead focusing more on clamping down on the spread of news regarding the virus.

The three-minute song also says that the WHO should change its name to “Winnie Happy Organization,” referring to a satirical comparison between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and popular children’s cartoon character Winnie the Pooh, whose images have been banned in China.

Dwagie said on Facebook that the song was written to express his view that the enjoyment of health should be a universal right without discrimination based on race, religion, political beliefs or economic or social conditions.

The 35-year-old rapper is known locally for using his music to express his views on controversial issues.

Between 2009 and 2016, Taiwan participated in the annual World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO, as an observer.

However, since 2017, the WHO has not invited Taiwan to the assembly, in line with Beijing’s hardline stance on cross-strait relations since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party took office in May 2016.

A number of governments, including Canada, Japan and the US, have over the past few weeks renewed their support for Taiwan’s inclusion in the assembly as an observer amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

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Virus Outbreak: Travel bans show need for new national name: group

Taiwan Republic Office director Chilly Chen, center with microphone, and activists from Taiwan Republic Office and other pro-Taiwan independence groups hold a rally in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei yesterday.Photo courtesy of Taiwan Republic Office
Now is the time to rectify the nation’s name by discarding all use of “Chinese Taipei” and “Republic of China” (ROC) and using “Taiwan” for all government agencies and state-funded corporations, given that the COVID-19 outbreak spread from China, but countries have imposed travel bans on Taiwanese, a group of pro-Taiwan independence supporters said at a rally in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei yesterday.

Taiwan Republic Office director Chilly Chen (陳峻涵) said that the gathering was held not in protest, but to rally public support and cheer on President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her administration for taking action to combat the virus.

People at the rally held up banners and placards that read: “Combat Against Virus Outbreak, Rectify Nation’s Name, Victory for Taiwan”; “Use Name of Taiwan to Conduct Diplomacy”; and “We want a New Constitution for Taiwan.”

“Now, due to the global fear of the ‘Wuhan virus’ from China, it is the time for President Tsai to act decisively by ending the use of ‘ROC’ and ‘Chinese Taipei,’ because international communities confuse us Taiwanese with Chinese,” Chen said.

“We demand that our nation’s name be rectified to Taiwan … to declare to the world that Taiwan and China are two different countries, and that Taiwanese are not ruled by the Beijing government,” he said.

Taiwan Independence Party official Peter Ku (古文發) said that with the international support for the nation and other countries’ endorsement of Taiwan’s excellent public health system and success in containing the virus outbreak, Tsai must take the opportunity to rectify the nation’s name, and to express Taiwanese’s overwhelming desire to join the WHO and become a member of the UN.

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people: 古文發 蔡英文


title: Taiwan News Quick Take

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HEALTH

Influenza killed 15: CDC

Fifteen people died of seasonal influenza in Taiwan last week, bringing the death toll since October last year to 90, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The youngest victim was a 30-year-old woman from northern Taiwan who died after being hospitalized for flu symptoms, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said in a weekly report. The woman did not seek treatment when she developed a fever in the middle of last month and was only rushed to an emergency room two days later by family members after she collapsed unconscious at home, Lin said. The woman, who did not have a prior history of chronic illnesses, died that day from complications of myocarditis caused by the influenza A virus subtype H1N1, Lin said, adding that none of the 15 people who died last week had been vaccinated and 14 had chronic diseases. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said that from Sunday last week to Saturday, a total of 60,704 people sought medical treatment for flu-like symptoms at hospitals and clinics nationwide, a decrease of 27.6 percent from the previous week.

DIPLOMACY

Ex-Pentagon man to give talk

Former US assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs Randall Schriver on Monday arrived in Taiwan and is today to deliver a speech titled “US-Taiwan Relations: Advancing Security in the Indo-Pacific Region” at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. It is Schriver’s first overseas trip since leaving the Pentagon in December last year and he does not plan to visit other Asian nations during the trip, the ministry said. Meanwhile, due to an outbreak of COVID-19 in China, the first workshop of the Global Cooperation and Training Framework, originally scheduled for next month, is to be postponed until June, the ministry said.

FISHERIES

Mauritius ban not relevant

Taiwanese long-haul fishing vessels continue to operate in and out of Mauritius without problem, despite travel restrictions put in place by the African island nation to combat COVID-19, the Fisheries Agency said on Monday. The ban does not affect fishers, because long-distance boats often operate at sea for an extended period of time, Deputy Director Wang Cheng-fang (王正芳) said. Mauritius is an important offshore base for Taiwan’s long-haul fishing fleet, welcoming about 600 Taiwanese fishing vessels each year, Wang said, adding that the agency is keeping a close eye on the situation.

SOCIETY

Good Samaritan identified

Days after Yanping Borough (延平) Warden Chen Wen-chia (陳雯嘉) said that she would like to find and thank an unidentified foreigner who was spotted cleaning up trash in a cemetery near Changhua County’s Tapu Drainage Ditch (大浦截水溝), the person has been identified as a Canadian who teaches English, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported. Adam Williams posted a message on CNA’s Facebook page saying that he was the person who cleaned up the litter. Williams said that he came upon the cemetery while he was out walking during the Lunar New Year holiday last month. “It didn’t seem right that a place like that should be full of trash, so I decided to go back and clean up some of it on my next free Saturday, which was the 15th,” he wrote. Chen yesterday said that she would get in touch with Williams and thank him.

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title: Virus Outbreak: Singapore outlines new economic support package

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People walk along the corridor of a wet market in Singapore on yesterday.Photo: AFP
Singapore yesterday unveiled a series of support packages in its budget to help cushion the economy against the coronavirus outbreak and job risks.

Singaporean Minister of Finance Heng Swee Keat (王瑞傑) said he would set aside S$800 million (US$575 million) to fight the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak, and provide two economic support packages totaling S$5.6 billion to support businesses and consumers.

“This year we usher in a new decade, one marked by tectonic shifts in our operating environment, and major uncertainties,” Heng said in his budget speech in parliament.

The government is putting in every effort to “slow down the spread of the virus,” he said.

The bulk of the S$800 million support to fight the coronavirus is to go to the Ministry of Health.

Of the S$5.6 billion economic support, S$4 billion is to primarily go toward supporting businesses with wage costs.

The rest is to assist consumers by offering “additional, timely help to more households with cost of living,” especially for lower-income families.

Singapore had been planning additional support for businesses hit by the ongoing US-China trade dispute before the coronavirus outbreak set in earlier this year.

The city-state, which has 81 confirmed cases of the virus, downgraded its growth outlook on Monday as it braces for an economic impact that is worse than the 2003 SARS pandemic.

The package announced yesterday dwarfs the S$230 million stimulus the government rolled out in the wake of the SARS outbreak.

The government still plans to raise the goods-and-services tax (GST) by 2025, but would not increase it next year, Heng said.

He outlined an enhanced package of subsidies, totally S$6 billion, to support consumers when the GST increase does take effect.

The majority of Singaporean families are to receive offsets of at least five years’ costs to cover GST expenses. Lower and middle-income Singaporeans and retirees remain eligible for additional support.

SOUTH KOREA

South Korean President Moon Jae-in yesterday said the government should make an all-out effort to cushion the economic impact from the COVID-19 outbreak, boosting expectations of further monetary easing.

“[The government] shouldn’t quibble over whether anything is unprecedented or not, rather, we should take every possible measure we can think of on the table to deploy them,” Moon said in a Cabinet meeting.

Moon said the economy is in an emergency situation and requires stimulus to lift domestic demand.

South Korea’s three-year Treasury bond futures sharply extended gains after Moon’s remarks as investors speculated stimulus measures being rolled out could include an interest rate cut when the Bank of Korea (BOK) meets on Thursday next week.

The BOK last month voted 5-2 to keep its benchmark rate steady at 1.25 percent, standing pat for a second meeting following two reductions in July and October last year.

Moon’s comments could add pressure on the bank to back government policies in the run-up to the April 15 general election.

In a Reuters survey last month, 14 of 33 analysts saw one more BOK cut through this year, while 15 saw no change.

Seoul drew up a supplementary budget in 2015 to help cushion the economy from the MERS outbreak.

Additional reporting by Reuters

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title: Tips from Singapore’s virus fears

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On Feb. 7, Singapore’s government raised the city-state’s Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level from “yellow” to “orange.”

As COVID-19 spreads through the Singaporean populace, the government has heightened measures according to the raised DORSCON level.

This new alert level indicates that the coronavirus is severe and is easily spread from person to person — although it is not prevalent among the population and is “being contained.”

While the government has made plenty of announcements with the expected reassuring platitudes, Singaporean Minister of Health Gan Kim Yong (顏金勇) on Wednesday last week said that “we have to be prepared for the worst.”

This came after a news release announcing three new cases, bringing the total number of cases to 50; Singapore has the highest number of any country after China. [Editor’s note: As of press time last night it had 81 cases.]

However, when the alert level was first raised, Singaporeans responded by flocking to the supermarkets, emptying the shelves of toilet paper, rice, canned foods and other staples.

Store inventories were strained, although over the past week the situation has eased.

What is to be said about how Singaporeans reacted?

The Singaporeans’ response highlights some ways that people think that are concerning. People only react when the government gives an indication that the situation could worsen, but in a manner that is clearly beyond necessary.

Even prior to the increase in the DORSCON level, some Singaporeans were hoarding masks and reselling them at extravagant prices, at a time when pharmacies and retailers had shortages.

Singaporean Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing (陳振聲) shared his dismay, saying “such behavior — they are not appropriate ... they are selfish and they are not helpful to our collective defense.”

Chan’s statement was telling. Singapore’s response to any external threat, visible and, as in the current case, invisible, has been to consolidate security and induce rhetoric of collective defense.

However, while the government preaches this, Singaporeans continue on their own path of self-preservation.

It is not that Singaporeans are selfish, it is that they recognize that their only way to true self-protection and survival does not rely on their leaders.

The empty shelves at supermarkets, the hoarding of masks and the long lines for hand sanitizer are simply symptoms of waning trust that people have in the government.

However, the government has taken the right measures to isolate potential cases and conduct extensive tracking of those the patients might have been in contact with.

Singapore’s small geographic size definitely helps on this front.

When the virus was only beginning to raise alarm bells, the government announced that it would distribute masks to households (four per family).

However, for many Singaporeans, these methods of responding to this invisible enemy are not enough.

Many wonder why the border with a high-risk country like China was not closed much earlier; why, unlike Hong Kongers, Singaporean workers still had to go to the office.

Interestingly, when a DBS bank employee was discovered to have contracted the virus, the whole floor of the office building was evacuated.

Many Singaporeans also wonder why the city-state’s airshow was not postponed.

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Hundreds of thousands of mussels cooked to death on New Zealand beach

Hundreds of thousands of mussels have been cooked to death on a beach in New Zealand’s North Island, with experts saying that millions more would die as the effects of the climate crisis accelerate.

The mass die-off in Northland was sparked by “an exceptional period of warm weather” combined with low tides in the middle of the day, which had exposed the shellfish, said Andrew Jeffs, a marine scientist from the University of Auckland.

More marine life would soon be affected by climate change and there was little that could be done to protect the vulnerable shellfish, other than manual protection measures, such as shade cloth, which are impractical and “unrealistic,” he said.

Northland is experiencing drought conditions, with many parts of the region not seeing rain for a record-breaking period of more than 40 days.

The effects of the drought have been severe, with kiwis perishing as they search for water and tankers of freshwater urgently trucked in to fill rainwater tanks in remote communities.

Exposed at a time of day when the sun was at its most intense, hundreds of beds of mussels had been “cooked” by the sun, Jeffs said.

Scientists had observed mussels suffering under changing weather conditions for a decade, but conditions were now getting more intense and devastating for the molluscs.

“I think we’re going to see entire communities of marine creatures change,” Jeffs said.

“These tidal areas are already a very intense place to live and have got very hot sunshine during the summer, it only makes it more intensive. It will only be the very toughest plants and animals that will survive there,” he said.

The smell of the dead mussels was pungent and disturbing, Northland resident Brandon Ferguson said.

“It smelt like death and most of the shells had already been cleaned out by gulls and other sea life, but there were still hundreds of full mussels, dying mussels and dead mussels washing in and some just floating around in the tide,” Ferguson told the Northern Advocate newspaper.

‘HEARTBREAKING’

“It was heartbreaking to see. Some were still washing in, but not knowing what was wrong, we didn’t touch them, there were more than 500,000 empty shells that we saw,” he said.

The New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries said it was investigating the mass die-off and urged people not to collect or eat the affected mussels.

Jeffs said mussels are ecologically very important for New Zealand’s coastal environment, but it was likely they would disappear from reef areas as conditions became increasingly adverse, especially during summer.

“This is large-scale, whole reef systems being dried out and dying,” Jeffs said. “We’re just going to lose them.”

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Virus Outbreak: Cruise passengers arrive at US bases

‘DIAMOND PRINCESS’:While some on the ship had been happy to be going home, others chose to stay as they thought they might be infected on the evacuation flight
More than 300 US cruise ship passengers, including 14 who tested positive for COVID-19, were on Monday being quarantined at military bases in California and Texas after arriving from Japan on charter flights overnight.

One plane carrying cruise passengers touched down at Travis Air Force Base in northern California just before midnight on Sunday, while another arrived at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas early on Monday.

The passengers are to remain at the bases for two weeks.

Japanese Minister of Defense Taro Kono tweeted earlier that Japanese troops helped transport 340 US passengers on 14 buses from Yokohama Port to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

About 380 Americans were on the cruise ship.

The US said that it arranged for the evacuation because people on the Diamond Princess were at a high risk of exposure to the virus.

For the departing Americans, the evacuation cuts short a 14-day quarantine that began aboard the cruise ship on Feb. 5.

The US Department of State later announced that 14 of the evacuees received confirmation that they had the virus, but were allowed to board the flight because they had no symptoms. They were being kept isolated from other passengers on the flight, the US departments of state and health and human services said in a joint statement.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the US National Institutes of Health, on Sunday said that an infected person who shows minimal symptoms could still pass the virus to someone else.

It is unclear which base the 14 who tested positive for the virus went to.

The evacuees who arrived at Travis Air Force Base would be housed at a different location from the more than 200 other Americans who were already being quarantined on the base, US officials said.

Those people have been at the base since earlier this month, when they arrived from China.

No Travis personnel would have contact with the passengers, officials said.

Now that they are in the US, the cruise ship passengers must go through another 14 days of quarantine at the military facilities — meaning they would have been under quarantine for nearly four weeks in total.

Americans Cheryl and Paul Molesky, a couple from Syracuse, New York, opted to trade one coronavirus quarantine for another, leaving the cruise ship to fly back to the US.

Cheryl Molesky said the rising number of patients on the ship factored into the decision.

“We are glad to be going home,” Cheryl Molesky earlier told NHK TV in Japan.

“It’s just a little bit disappointing that we’ll have to go through quarantine again, and we will probably not be as comfortable as the Diamond Princess, possibly,” she said.

Some US passengers said that they would pass up the opportunity to fly home because of the additional quarantine.

There also was worry about being on a long flight with other passengers who might be infected or in an incubation period.

One of the Americans, Matthew Smith, said in a tweet on Sunday that he saw a passenger with no mask talking at close quarters with another passenger.

He said he and his wife scurried away.

“If there are secondary infections on board, this is why, and you wanted me to get on a bus with her,” he said.

He said the US health officials who visited their room were surprised that the couple had decided to stay, and wished them luck.

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Doctors and media freedom group rally around Assange

HEALTHCARE RIGHTS:A group of 117 doctors condemned Assange’s ‘torture,’ which RSF said was an act of ‘retaliation’ by Trump’s administration
More than 100 doctors on Monday called on Britain to end Julian Assange’s “torture” in prison pending his extradition to the US on espionage charges.

The 48-year-old Australian is facing 18 counts in the US — 17 of them under the Espionage Act — that could see him jailed for 175 years.

Washington’s extradition request is to start being heard on Monday next week at Woolwich Crown Court.

Assange is being held at the neighboring high-security Belmarsh Prison.

A group of 117 physicians and psychologists from 18 nations wrote in a letter to The Lancet medical journal that Assange was being subjected to “torture” in prison.

“We condemn the torture of Assange. We condemn the denial of his fundamental right to appropriate healthcare,” they wrote.

“Since doctors first began assessing Mr Assange in the Ecuadorian [sic] Embassy in 2015, expert medical opinion and doctors’ urgent recommendations have been consistently ignored,” they wrote.

Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, has repeatedly warned that Assange has begun to exhibit signs of psychological torture.

Assange was briefly transferred from prison to a medical facility last year because of his frail health.

London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court has also been forced to postpone a series of preliminary hearings because of Assange’s inability to make an appearance by video link.

“Our appeals are simple: We are calling upon governments to end the torture of Mr Assange and ensure his access to the best available healthcare, before it is too late,” the group of doctors wrote.

Assange’s seven-year hideout in the Ecuadoran embassy in London dramatically ended when British police dragged him out and arrested him on a US extradition request in April last year.

He was initially wanted in Sweden in connection with a rape investigation that has now been formally dropped.

Yet Assange had long suspected that he would eventually be sought by Washington for his decision to publish a trove of classified Pentagon documents detailing alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) posted a separate petition on Monday, accusing US President Donald Trump’s administration of acting in “retaliation for [Assange’s] facilitating major revelations in the international media about the way the United States conducted its wars.”

“The publication of these documents by media outlets was clearly in the public interest, and not an act of espionage. Julian Assange’s contribution to journalism is undeniable,” the online petition says.

It had been signed nearly 20,000 times by Monday afternoon.

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Virus Outbreak: British couple on ‘Diamond Princess’ positive for virus

A British couple who published video diaries from a cruise ship quarantined off the coast of Japan said they have tested positive for COVID-19, as the UK government announced plans to evacuate citizens from the ship.

“There is going to be a time of quiet. We have been proved positive and leaving for hospital soon. Blessings all xxx,” David Abel wrote in a Facebook post.

The Abels — David and his wife, Sally — have given regular updates to the media about conditions onboard the Diamond Princess, which has been quarantined off Japan since Feb. 3 after a passenger who disembarked in Hong Kong tested positive for the coronavirus.

However, in a later post, Abel, from Oxfordshire, said he doubted his diagnosis.

“Frankly I think this is a setup! We are NOT being taken to a hospital, but a hostel. That’s where partners are sent waiting out their quarantine,” he wrote.

Asked in the comments below one of his posts whether he was sure the test was positive, he replied: “I doubt it was positive. If it was, we would be in hospital.”

The Abels’ reported positive diagnosis came as Japanese health authorities confirmed an additional 88 coronavirus infections on the Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 542.

The couple’s son, Steve Abel, said his parents were “not getting any communication” from the UK.

“They are very high-spirited people,” he told BBC Breakfast, but added: “There are cracks in the armor and they are getting down. My mom breaks down in tears frequently, my dad is short-tempered. They are not getting any communication from our country, so they are in the dark and feeling very unloved.”

Steve Abel told BBC Radio 5 Live he was concerned that his father, who is diabetic, was not eating the right food, and called for his parents to be allowed to return home.

The British government, which has come under mounting pressure to fly citizens home, yesterday morning said that it was “working to organize a flight” to evacuate citizens stranded on the ship.

On Monday, a Downing Street spokesman said those onboard the ship were being contacted about the possibility of a repatriation flight.

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content_text:
All Tindered out? The surprising return of the singles night

From naked dating to dirty Scrabble, singles nights and speed dating have been reinvented. Can these increasingly quirky events lead to lasting love?
Couples pose last week for photos in an interactive digital installation, part of Future World: Where Art Meets Science exhibit at the ArtScience Museum on Valentine’s Day in Singapore.Photo: EPA-EFE
“I used to torture frogs when I was young,” the man was telling me, with a stare that would make the most experienced serial killer uneasy.

I wasn’t at a Halloween party. It was Friday night in London and I was attending my first singles event. When my friend suggested it, I had expected the evening to be awkward. I hadn’t expected to be nursing a glass of a wine while a stranger described the many brutal ways he had culled the north London amphibian population. After two hours of painful conversation with other guests, we eventually escaped, although not before our new friend leaned in for a bum grope.

I was unlucky at this mixer. But even when attendees don’t turn out to be on an RSPCA watch list, singles events can feel more forced than a 90s school disco. I am not alone in my phobia of organized mixers; a recent survey by the Inner Circle revealed that 41 percent of daters in the UK would refuse to attend one, citing embarrassment and awkwardness as the main reasons.

Yet despite people’s preconceptions, the dating app company hasn’t been deterred. It holds 55 events a year, including parties, skiing trips and bingo. The average number of party attendees doubled to more than 300 between 2018 and last year, suggesting the events are more popular than ever.

Meanwhile, more traditional event organizers are seeing a rise in demand, with SpeedDater running 70 events a month across 23 cities in the UK.

“We are trying to break down the stigma,” says Sarah Payne, the events manager at SpeedDater Events. “There used to be a big stigma about online dating but that has gone now. It is completely normal to meet online and we’d like to see the same thing happen with events. We do speed dating, but we also run parties, cooking classes and wine tasting.”

FACE-TO-FACE INTERACTION

As people develop “app-based dating fatigue,” singles events are making a comeback.

“Apps are very appearance-based and events give people the chance to get a better idea of who a person is. People might be unsure about attending them, but then find they enjoy the face-to-face interaction.”

Lynn, a 58-year-old life coach from Liverpool, turned to speed dating after becoming disillusioned with Tinder.

“A few years ago, people were enthusiastic on apps and wanted to meet up, but that doesn’t seem to happen now,” she says. “I tried speed dating, because it’s a faster version of apps and you get to meet lots of different people.”

Although she hasn’t found any serious romantic prospects, she has had fun and made new friends.

“You can’t take it too seriously or expect too much. You might have to meet a huge number of people to find someone you are actually compatible with,” Lynn says.

Some dating companies are putting a spin on singles mixers with events such as naked speed dating or pheromone dating, where people can try to sniff their way to true love. For Alice, 28, a copywriter from Reading, these gimmicks can be fun, but they aren’t likely to lead to love.

“I went naked speed dating because I thought it would be something different,” she says. “Usually, women’s tickets for dating events sell out faster than the men’s tickets, but the opposite was true for this.”

She chose to wear her underwear, although many people were naked. While she admits there was a novelty factor, it is not something she will repeat in a hurry.


content_text:
B: I’ve finished turning over the soil. Let’s plant the root vegetables over in this corner.

A: Hang on a minute, the soil seems quite chalky. We should dig in some organic topsoil to help improve moisture retention.

B: Good thinking. I’ll drive to the garden center and pick up a couple of sacks.

A: While you’re there, could you also grab some organic fertilizer?

B: 我剛剛把土全部翻完了。我們來把根莖類作物種在這個角落吧。

A : 等一下，這土壤看起來有一點太粉了。我們應該要摻入一些有機表土，改善土壤的保溼度。

B : 你想得真周到。我來開車去園圃中心載幾袋有機表土回來。

A : 你到那邊的時候，可以順便拿一些有機肥料過來嗎？

English 英文:

Chinese 中文:

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title: EVERYDAY ENGLISH


title: World News Quick Take

content_text:
TURKEY

Dozens face arrest over coup

Prosecutors investigating the military and Ministry of Justice yesterday ordered the arrest of 228 people over suspected links to a network that Ankara says was behind a 2016 coup attempt, state-owned Anadolu news agency reported. There has been a sustained crackdown on alleged followers of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen since the failed putsch. In the latest moves, prosecutors ordered the arrest of 157 people, including 101 serving officers in an investigation of the Turkish Armed Forces, Anadolu said. Separately, prosecutors in the capital Ankara ordered the detention of 71 people in an investigation targeting alleged Gulen supporters in the ministry, 33 of them current employees, Anadolu said.

VENEZUELA

Airline halted over Guaido

Authorities on Monday suspended TAP Air Portugal days after the airline carried National Assembly President Juan Guaido and his uncle home from an international tour aimed at ousting President Nicolas Maduro. Authorities arrested Guaido’s uncle upon landing, accusing him of trying to bring a small amount of explosives into the nation. Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said the carrier’s flights into and out of the country had been suspended for 90 days, hours after the minister of transport and communications said the ministry had opened an investigation into “serious violation” of local regulations.

UNITED STATES

Bolton worried for book

Former national security adviser John Bolton on Monday raised concern about his unpublished book being “suppressed” by the White House and said that he should be able to respond to President Donald Trump’s tweets about him. “I hope, ultimately, I can get the book published,” Bolton told a Duke University event in North Carolina during his first public remarks since Trump’s acquittal in his US Senate impeachment trial. “I hope it’s not suppressed,” he added. Asked about the president’s criticism of him on Twitter, Bolton said: “He [Trump] tweets, but I can’t talk about it. How fair is that?”

SOUTH KOREA

Four die in highway pileup

Four people were killed and 43 were injured on Monday in a highway pileup in snowy weather, officials said. The Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency said that the pileup involved about 30 vehicles, including a chemical truck carrying nitric acid that flipped over and caught fire inside a tunnel. Police official Jeon Gwang-hun said that he could not provide further details, because the investigation into the cause of the accident was continuing.

UNITED STATES

Swift’s dad fights burglar

Taylor Swift’s father fought a burglar who broke into his US$4 million Florida penthouse, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Scott Swift returned to his home in Vinoy Place Towers in St Petersburg on Jan. 17 just moments after 30-year-old Terrence Hoover used an emergency escape stairwell to climb 13 floors to enter it, the newspaper said. The men fought before Hoover ran away, the paper said, citing police records. Hoover has a lengthy arrest record that includes domestic violence by strangulation, aggravated battery, burglary, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and false imprisonment, the paper said. Swift picked Hoover out of a photograph lineup.

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Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s push to ban the sale of assault weapons on Monday failed after some of his fellow Democrats balked at the proposal.

Senators voted to shelve the bill for the year and ask the Virginia State Crime Commission to study the issue, an outcome that drew cheers from a committee room packed with gun advocates.

Four Democrats — most of them moderates — joined Republicans in the committee vote, rejecting legislation that would have prohibited the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms, including popular AR-15-style rifles, and banned the possession of magazines that hold more than 12 rounds.

The bill was a top priority for Northam, who has campaigned heavily for a broad package of gun-control measures.

The governor’s spokeswoman, Alena Yarmosky, said that he is disappointed with the result, but determined to continue to press for the measure.

“We will be back next year,” she said.

David Majure, a gun-rights supporter who attended the committee hearing, said that he is glad about the result, but not convinced the bill is dead for the year.

“I’m happy about it, but I don’t trust them,” he said.

Virginia is the epicenter of the country’s heated debate over guns, as a new Democratic majority seeks to enact strict new limits.

Democrats ran heavily on gun control during last year’s legislative elections when they flipped control of the General Assembly for the first time in more than two decades.

However, gun owners, especially in rural communities, have pushed back hard. Last month, tens of thousands of guns-rights activists from around the country flooded the Capitol and surrounding area in protest, some donning tactical gear and carrying military-style rifles.

More than 100 counties, cities and towns have also declared themselves second amendment sanctuaries, vowing to oppose any new restrictions on guns.

The proposed assault weapon ban has received the most opposition. Gun owners have accused the governor and others of wanting to confiscate commonly owned guns and accessories from law-abiding gun owners.

Northam and his allies have said repeatedly that they do not want to confiscate guns, but argued that banning new sales of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines would help prevent mass murders.

“This bill will save lives,” said Democratic Delegate Mark Levine, who sponsored the legislation.

Earlier proposals to ban possession of AR-15-style rifles or to require owners to register them with state police have been scrapped.

The governor had hoped that a watered-down version would win over enough Democratic moderates for passage, but moderate Democrats in the state Senate have said for weeks that they are uncomfortable passing legislation that would affect so many gun owners.

About 8 million AR-style guns have been sold since they were introduced to the public in the 1960s.

Lawmakers voted to table the bill on Monday with little debate, while saying that there was confusion over what types of guns would constitute an assault weapon.

The state Senate has now rejected three of the governor’s eight gun-control measures.

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title: Virginia senators reject assault weapon ban


title: Donors pledge 1.15bn euros for Albania quake recovery

content_text:
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama speaks at a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday.Photo: AFP
International donors on Monday pledged 1.15 billion euros (US$1.25 billion) to help Albania recover from a powerful earthquake in November last year, the EU head announced, more than double the sum expected by Tirana.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said the sum — which exceeds the total recovery bill of 1.08 billion euros assessed by the UN — was “beyond my wildest imagination,” having begun the day hoping for pledges of only 400 million euros.

The money would help the impoverished Balkan state rebuild and recover after the magnitude 6.4 quake hit, killing 51 people and leaving 17,000 homeless.

“Good news for the people of Albania: We’ve surpassed our target for the reconstruction of Albania and reached a total of 1.15 billion euros, incl. 400 million euros in EU contributions,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted.

“I’m overwhelmed by the support. Once again Europe stands together when it matters most!” she wrote.

European states and institutions contributed, along with other countries, including Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, as well as international financial institutions.

“I am so happy and I am so, so humbled by all of this. We need now not to fail our friends and to make reconstruction in Albania a stunning example,” Rama said.

Given Western concerns about rife corruption in Albania, Rama said that he had asked the US to put its contribution into an “academy of transparency” to ensure the reconstruction money was not misused.

“We’ll go through the necessary pains to make sure every penny of European taxpayers ... will be spent well,” he said.

Part of the reason the quake caused so much damage, experts say, was the scourge of illegal construction, which has seen builders and engineers in the former communist state flout safety codes for decades.

Rama said that “what we reconstruct should be better than what we lost,” suggesting that new earthquake resistance and environmental standards could be imposed.

Before the pledge meeting, Albanian expectations had been dampened by what Rama called a “political earthquake” in October last year, when three EU states blocked Tirana from starting membership talks to join the bloc — the second such delay in less than six months.

France — which led the Netherlands and Denmark in October’s veto — softened its opposition at the weekend after the European Commission proposed a tougher and more political admissions process for new members.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that if a commission report on Albania and fellow hopeful North Macedonia next month confirms enough progress on reforms, he would be ready to agree to start the long accession process.

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content_text:
Fail productively? How to turn yourself into a super-learner

Whether you’re taking up the oboe or finessing your Finnish, scientific research offers tips to aid learning
Cardiovascular exercises, such as mountain climbing, trigger the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and epinephrine that are essential for memory formation.Photo: Noah Buchan, Taipei Times

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If your aim for this year was to learn a new skill, you may be at the point of giving up. Whether you are mastering a new language or a musical instrument, or taking a career-changing course, initial enthusiasm can only take you so far, and any further progress can be disappointingly slow.

From these struggles, you might assume that you simply lack a natural gift — compared to those lucky people who can learn any new skill with apparent ease.

However, it needn’t be this way. Many polymaths — including Charles Darwin and the Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman — claimed not to have exceptional natural intelligence. Most of us have more than enough brainpower to master a new discipline, if we apply it correctly — and the latest neuroscience offers many strategies to do just that.

Much research in the field hinges on the idea of “desirable difficulties,” pioneered by Profs Robert and Elizabeth Bjork at the University of California, Los Angeles. The aim is to deliberately create a slight feeling of frustration as you learn, which leads the brain to process the material more deeply, creating longer-lasting memories.

It’s like physical exercise: you need to feel a bit of resistance to make significant long-term gains.

Unfortunately, many of our preferred learning techniques — such as reading and highlighting textbooks, or the drawing of colourful “mind maps” to summarise material — don’t offer enough mental challenge to make the information stick, leading to disappointing results.

“Our judgement about our learning is often biased towards strategies that feel easy and effortless,” says Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel, a psychologist at the University of Glasgow and member of the Learning Scientists Web site. “But they don’t translate into long-term retention of knowledge.”

The following strategies will help you overcome these bad habits. Whatever you plan to learn, they will make your memory the envy of others.

FAIL PRODUCTIVELY

Let’s begin with the pre-test — a strategy that is perhaps best explained with an example.

How do you say “thank you” in Finnish? The answer is kiitos — and I’m guessing that most readers who aren’t Finnish won’t have had any hope of answering this correctly.

But thanks to that initial struggle, you will now be more likely to remember the answer in the future. Psychological studies show that a “pre-test” quiz — taken before you have studied the material — primes the brain to absorb the information afterwards , even if you failed to answer a single question correctly.

This is true for both the memorization of simple trivia and the deeper understanding of more complicated material . In one study, participants were quizzed on the neuroscience of vision before reading an Oliver Sacks essay on the subject. They ended up learning 10 to 15 percent more than students who had instead been given extra time to read the text.

Whatever you are learning, try to gauge your current understanding of the topic — even if it is nonexistent.

TEACH IT TO SOMEONE ELSE

After taking the pre-test, you also want to continue quizzing yourself on what you’ve just learned. To psychologists, this is called “retrieval practice” and it is one of the most reliable ways of building stronger memory traces. In carefully controlled studies, retrieval practice vastly outperforms other strategies such as mind-mapping the material as you study.


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Maria Magdalena, mother of Fatima, who went missing on Tuesday last week and whose body was discovered over the weekend inside a plastic garbage bag, reacts as Fatima’s coffin arrives at their house in Mexico City on Monday.Photo: Reuters
The killing of a seven-year-old girl on the southern outskirts of Mexico City has stoked rising anger over the brutal slayings of women, including one found stabbed to death and skinned earlier this month.

The city prosecutor’s office on Monday said investigators identified a body found over the weekend as that of Fatima, an elementary-school student who was taken by a stranger on Tuesday last week.

By law, prosecutors do not give the full name of victims.

Her body was found wrapped in a bag and abandoned in a rural area on Saturday and was identified by genetic testing. The cause of death has not been released.

Five people have been questioned in the case, and video footage of her abduction exists.

Mexico City Prosecutor Ernestina Godoy said that Fatima’s murder would not go unpunished.

The investigation is focused on identifying the woman seen walking away from the school with Fatima.

Guillermo Anton Godinez, the girl’s grandfather, on Monday said that his daughter arrived at the school 15 or 20 minutes after the woman led her away.

His granddaughter had left the school wearing her uniform, but the woman had put a green shirt and pants on her, he added.

His daughter was initially told that authorities could not begin searching for 72 hours after her disappearance, he said.

However, the prosecutors office said an amber alert was issued about Fatima’s disappearance the same day that relatives reported her missing.

Prosecutors’ spokesman Ulises Lara offered a US$100,000 reward for information on the person who picked her up when she left school.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum accompanied Fatima’s mother during the legal paperwork involved in filing charges and picking up her body.

“We are going to accompany the family, and justice must be done,” Sheinbaum said.

The girl’s mother, Maria Magdalena Anton, appeared angry and distraught outside the prosecutors’ offices.

“Justice has to be done, for my daughter and for all women,” she said.

Investigators made the family wait hours and travel across the city to even file a missing person report, she said.

Other relatives accused police of not acting quickly enough.

“She could have been found alive, but nobody paid attention to us,” said Sonia Lopez, Fatima’s aunt.

Lopez also said that there had been longstanding questions about the mother’s ability to care for her children, but that city health and family welfare agencies had not helped them.

Later, family and friends gathered for a wake at the family’s home to mourn Fatima.

Many relatives and commentators called for urgent changes to elementary-school safety protocols.

At government schools in urban areas of Mexico, children simply walk out on the street after classes end. Although their parents are often waiting outside, it is not the school’s responsibility to make sure someone is waiting to meet them.

The abduction and killing of the child came just two days after Ingrid Escamilla, a young Mexico City resident, was allegedly murdered by a boyfriend.

The man, who has been arrested, purportedly confessed to killing Escamilla with a knife, mutilating her body and flushing part of her corpse into the sewer.

Indignation grew after local media published horrific photographs of the skinned corpse, apparently leaked by city police officers.

Protesters read a statement on Friday saying: “It enrages us how Ingrid was killed, and how the media put her body on display.”

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title: Killing of 7-year-old stokes anger in Mexico


title: Leaked data show China targets Islam

content_text:
Security personnel patrol near the Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar in China’s Xinjiang region on Nov. 4, 2017.Photo: AP
Uighur imam Memtimin Emer was for decades the bedrock of his farming community in China’s Xinjiang region. On Fridays, he preached Islam as a religion of peace. On Sundays, he treated the sick with free herbal medicine. In the winter, he took coal to the poor.

However, as Beijing’s mass detention campaign engulfed the Xinjiang region three years ago, the elderly imam was swept up and locked away, along with all three of his sons living in China.

A newly revealed database exposes in extraordinary detail the main reasons for the detentions of Emer, his three sons and hundreds of others in Karakax County: their religion and their family ties.

The database profiles the internment of 311 individuals with relatives abroad and lists information on more than 2,000 of their relatives, neighbors and friends.

Each entry includes the detainee’s name, address, national identity number, detention date and location, along with a detailed dossier on their family, religious and neighborhood background, the reason for detention, and a decision on whether or not to release them.

Issued within the past year, the documents do not indicate which government department compiled them or for whom.

Taken as a whole, the information offers the fullest and most personal view yet into how Chinese officials decided who to put into and let out of detention camps, as part of a massive crackdown that has locked away more than 1 million ethnic minorities, most of them Muslims.

The database emphasizes that the Chinese government focused on religion as a reason for detention — not just political extremism, as authorities claim, but ordinary activities such as praying, attending a mosque or even growing a long beard.

It also shows the role of family: People with detained relatives are far more likely to end up in a camp themselves, uprooting and criminalizing entire families such as Emer’s in the process.

Similarly, family background and attitude is a bigger factor than detainee behavior in whether they are released.

“It’s very clear that religious practice is being targeted,” said University of Colorado researcher Darren Byler, who studies the use of surveillance technology in the Xinjiang region. “They want to fragment society, to pull the families apart and make them much more vulnerable to retraining and re-education.”

The Xinjiang government did not respond to faxes requesting comment.

Asked if the Xinjiang region is targeting religious people and their families, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) said: “This kind of nonsense is not worth commenting on.”

Beijing has said before that the detention centers are for voluntary job training and that it does not discriminate based on religion.

China has struggled for decades to control the Xinjiang region, where the native Uighurs have long resented Beijing’s heavy-handed rule.

With the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in the US, Chinese officials began using the specter of terrorism to justify harsher religious restrictions, saying that young Uighurs were susceptible to Islamic extremism.

After militants set off bombs at a train station in the region’s capital, Urumqi, in 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) launched a so-called “People’s War on Terror,” transforming the Xinjiang region into a digital police state.

The leak of the database from sources in the Uighur exile community follows the release in November last year of a classified blueprint on how the mass detention system really works.

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title: London mayor urges EU to offer ‘associate citizenship’

content_text:
London Mayor Sadiq Khan planned to use a trip yesterday to Brussels to implore EU negotiators to be open to continued free movement for Britons through “associate citizenship.”

With the backing of former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, Khan said the offer of such rights to those who wish to retain them should be at “the heart” of the coming negotiations over the future relationship.

The idea of “associate citizenship” was first raised in late 2016 by Verhofstadt, who was then the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator.

The offer would be of continued freedom of movement and residence around the bloc for those who wished to retain such rights. Such a status would also protect rights in healthcare, welfare and workplace conditions, and likely the right to vote in European Parliament elections.

The chances of such an initiative making headway in the negotiations are extremely limited, as it would be unlawful under EU legislation.

There is unlikely to be appetite for any rewriting of treaties among the 27 member states, given the UK government’s hostile attitude to the free movement of EU nationals who wish to live and work in Britain.

Khan, who was to meet EU Head of Task Force for Relations with the UK Michel Barnier and European Parliament President David Sassoli during his visit, said he believed the idea still had merit.

“Like so many Londoners, I am heartbroken that we are no longer a member of the European Union, but that doesn’t mean our country’s future can’t be closely linked with the rest of Europe,” he said.

“The prime minister says his job is to bring the country together and move us forward, and I cannot think of a better way of reconciling the differences between British voters who wanted to leave, and the millions of Londoners and British nationals who still feel and want to be European,” he said.

“There would be support from millions of Londoners and British nationals who are devastated they are losing their rights as EU citizens,” he added. “As the UK and EU start their next phase of negotiations, I want this issue of associate citizenship to be at the heart of talks about our future relationship.”

Verhofstadt, who has the backing of the European Parliament to be chair of a new conference on the future of Europe involving all the EU institutions, said he believed that Brussels should be open to the concept.

“The Maastricht Treaty created the concept of ‘European citizenship’ and I am in favor of using this now as a basis for people who want to keep their link with Europe,” he said. “It is the first time in the history of our union that a member state leaves, but it is not because the UK government wanted exit that individual citizens have to lose their connection with the continent.”

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