■ Crime
Suspected bomb found
A package suspected of containing an explosive device was found near the Taipei District Court complex in the downtown Boai Special District yesterday morning. A bomb squad was immediately dispatched to the scene to handle the package, which was found to contain a suspected explosive material attached to a wire and battery, according to police sources in the Boai Special District, where the Presidential Office is located. Police have begun an investigation to determine the source of the package.
■ Politics
KMT sets election rules
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday approved regulations for its chairmanship election, including a mechanism for evaluating ballots. After the KMT's weekly Central Standing Committee meeting yesterday, the party released the final draft of its regulations for the July 16 election. Candidates must register their candidacy from May 25 to June 8 and present a petition of more than one-third of party members supporting him or her, and pass an appraisal by the candidates evaluation committee. The KMT yesterday said that it was seeking to open as many poll booths as possible and to provide party members in remote areas with transportation to the polls. Voting will take place on July 16. So far, only two people have announced their intention to run for the post: party vice chairmen Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
■ Immigration
Citizenship changes proceed
Foreign nationals seeking Taiwanese citizenship will be required to have a basic grasp of Mandarin and an understanding of the rights and responsibilities of being a Taiwanese citizen if an amendment to the Nationality Law (國籍法) is passed. The amendment was approved by the legislature's Home and Nations Committee yesterday and sent for further screening to a legislative plenary session. According to the amendment, the Ministry of the Interior will set the standards regarding basic language ability and knowledge of citizen rights and responsibilities. The ministry will also be responsible for testing applicants. Vice Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) said that the amendment is aimed at bringing naturalization laws in line with those of such English-speaking countries as the US, Canada and New Zealand.
■ Elections
Stiffer penalties mooted
The Cabinet yesterday approved a stricter amendment to the Public Officials Election and Recall Law (公職人員選罷法), which will increase the length of sentences for those found guilty of vote-buying from a maximum five-year prison sentence to between three and 10 years. The amendment will be submitted to the legislature for final approval. "When the premier proposed his idea to combine three elections into one on March 30, many people suggested that there should be a new mechanism to go with the new proposal. Since bribery-related cases have been everybody's main worry, we decided to start from here," said Cabinet spokesman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). According to the premier's proposal, the elections for county commissioner and city mayor in December, the county councilors' election in December, as well as the election for township mayors in February next year would be combined into one poll to save time and expenses.
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