■ Foreign affairs
Shady funding denied
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied yesterday it had given funds to former Nicaraguan president Arnoldo Aleman for his party's election campaigns. A Nicaraguan investigator said in a press conference Thursday that Aleman's ruling Constitutionalist Liberal Party falsely reported its campaign funds in the country's 2001 election. The party reported US$5.1 million of campaign funds, but the investigator said evidence showed the party has actually garnered around US$35 million. The investigator said US$24 million of the party's unreported campaign funds are directly linked to Taiwan's donations. In response, ministry spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦) said the ministry's aid to Nicaragua is for the government and its people rather than any individual.
■ Trade
Sanctions for Iran sales
A local firm has been sanctioned by the US for violating an embargo against Iran by selling it items forbidden by the US, the State Department reported Friday. Adam Ereli, the deputy spokesman for the State Department, said US intelligence shows that the Goodly Industry Company of Taiwan, along with 12 other firms, have since Jan. 1, 1999 sold goods or technology to Iran that could be used for the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction. These firms have violated US legislation enacted in 2000 and have thereby been deprived of the right to deal with the US government for two years, Ereli said. Among the 13 offenders, five are Chinese firms. Goodly is believed to be the first Taiwan firm sanctioned under the act.
■ Development
Kaohsiung group tours Europe
A delegation from Kaohsiung has embarked on a European tour to obtain information about urban development with a view to boosting Kaohsiung's development. The 25-member delegation, headed by Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Lin Yun-chien (林永堅), arrived in Rome April 1, where they were received by Rome Deputy Mayor Mariapia Garavaglia. The two sides exchanged opinions on their urban development experiences. Prior to their visit to Rome, the delegation had also visited London, Bonn and Barcelona to absorb experiences of urban development in those cities that could be applied to development in Kaohsiung.
■ Weather
Snow and hail fall
A strong convection current not only brought torrential rain to most of the country yesterday but also brought snow to Hohuanshan and hail to Yushan in central Taiwan, a very unusual occurrence for April, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB). Snowy season on the 3,416m Hohuanshan usually ends in February, but the humidity from a cold front the previous day prompted a rare spring snowfall that lasted for nearly an hour and covered the mountain with 2cm of snow, according to the CWB. Weather forecasters attributed the snow to the strong convection current that led to there being clouds as high as 5,000 or 6,000m. Meanwhile, Yushan -- the nation's highest mountain -- had a hail shower.
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
HOSPITALITY HIT: Hotels in Hualien have an occupancy rate of 10 percent, down from 30 percent before the earthquake, a Tourism Administration official said The Executive Yuan yesterday unveiled a stimulus package of vouchers and subsidies to revive tourism in Hualien County following a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The tremor on April 3, which killed at least 17 people and left two others missing, caused the county an estimated NT$3 billion (US$92.7 million) in damages. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to issue vouchers worth NT$200 at the price of NT$100 for purchases at the Dongdamen Night Market (東大門夜市) in Hualien City to boost spending, a ministry official told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in Taipei. The ministry plans to issue 18,400