■ Health
DOH official offers to quit
Two days after a large-scale protest by community hospitals, the Department of Health's Deputy Director Chang Hong-jen (張鴻仁) offered to resign yesterday, saying that he will take responsibility for a fixed-budget policy slammed by demonstrators. The policy was formulated during his tenure as president of the Bureau of National Health Insurance. "If my resignation can quell the storm, I will step down," Chang told TV reporters during his visit to the department's Taoyuan Hospital. Director-General Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said that he hoped Chang can stay at his post while reforms to the insurance system are undertaken.
■ Politics
Public satisfied with speech
More than half of citizens are satisfied with remarks President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) made in his Double Ten National Day speech, according to the results of a government-conducted opinion poll released yes-terday. A total of 64 percent of residents approved of the idea that leaders from all of political parties be invited to establish a Committee for Cross-Strait Peace and Development, according to the survey by the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission. The telephone poll, con-ducted Monday and Tues-day, found that 60 percent of the respondents think that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should build a military mutual trust mech-anism to help reduce ten-sions. A total of 68 percent said that Taiwan should seek to join the UN, while 59.5 percent said that the government should engage in negotiations with Beijing without delay on direct cross-strait passenger and cargo charter flight services. Meanwhile, 47.8 percent said that they support Chen's notion that the two sides resume dialogue based on the "1992 consensus," while 14.7 percent said they are against it, and 37.5 percent said they have no clear ideas on the issue.
■ Defense
Budget figures queried
Vice Minister of National Defense Tsai Ming-shian (蔡明憲) yesterday expressed hope that the defense budget will account for 3.5 percent of GDP in the future over the current 2.5 percent. At a meeting of the legislature's National Defense Com-mittee, Tsai said the pro-posed defense budget increase is to support arms purchase plans and the implementation of a volun-tary military service pro-gram in the future. Tsai said the defense budget for fiscal 2005 will total US$260 bil-lion, accounting for only 2.5 percent of the country's GDP. According to People First Party Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁芳), the ministry will need an additional NT$380 billion (US$11.2 billion) from next tear to 2009 to support the volun-tary program. Additional money would mean that NT$76 billion would be unavailable for general defense spending, making it difficult to support the voluntary program.
■ Government
Civil service holidays set
Central Personnel Admin-istration Director-General Lee Yi-yang announced yesterday that public servants will have 112 days off next year, including weekends. They will have eight consecutive days off during the Lunar New Year vacation from Feb. 6 to Feb. 13, but will have to work the previous Saturday. The announcement followed discussions with represen-tatives from local govern-ments, the Chinese National Federation of Industries and the General Chamber of Commerce of the ROC.
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