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Taiwan Quick Take

■ Politics
Hu being extra careful
Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) is taking extra safety precautions after receiving intelligence reports that threats have been made to remove him from tomorrow's elections. Speaking to the reporters yesterday the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate said the safety precautions include him bringing his own food and water to campaign sites. Opinion poll results show that Hu has a slight lead over his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and People First Party rivals. On the DPP's attempt to focus public attention on his health, Hu said he will not agree to the demands he release his medical records because the information would be misused. Hu said he will file a civil lawsuit against a DPP legislator and 11 other doctors for disclosing what they claimed to be his medical history, and that he will donate whatever compensation he might receive to charity.

■ Health
AIDS cases increasing
A total of 10,414 cases of AIDS/HIV infection have been reported up to the end of last month, with the number increasing rapidly over the past year at a rate of 10 cases per day, according to data released yesterday by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on World AIDS Day. Of these AIDS/HIV cases, 9,872 are locals, officials said. Unprotected sex between heterosexual couples is the main cause of new cases and accounts for 49 percent of the cases. Intravenous drug use accounts for 41 percent, with 60 percent to 70 percent of the new cases reported this year being drug users. While the AIDS/HIV cases include infants and the elderly as old as 93, most of them fall in the 20 to 40 age group. CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ting attributed the fast spread of AIDS/HIV to the open attitude toward sex by the younger generation, the popularity of orgies, the infrequent use of condoms and the increase in the number of intravenous drug users.

■ Travel
Japanese may get 90 days
The government is assessing whether or not to extend the existing 30-day visa-free treatment for Japanese to 90 days in response to Tokyo's recent lifting of visa requirements for Taiwanese tourists, Liao Ching-pang (廖經邦), deputy chief executive officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Committee on Japanese Affairs, said yesterday. At present, 30 days is the longest visa-free period granted to any country. Japan said in mid-September that it would offer permanent visa-free privileges to travelers from Taiwan starting Sept. 26 as a belated reciprocal measure since Taiwan has long offered visa-free treatment to Japanese tourists. Liao also said that bilateral exchanges have been boosted in recent months, with Taiwan hosting eight Japanese parliamentary delegations and 30 civil group delegations during the past two months.

■ Education
Fewer students going to US
The number of Taiwanese studying in the US totalled 25,914 for the 2004-2005 school year, marking a decline of 1 percent over the previous year's level, the American International Education Foundation's (AIEF) Taiwan office reported yesterday. India topped the list with 80,466 people studying in the US, followed by China with 62,523. Taiwan ranked sixth on the list. The AIEF news release said that the foreign students generated at least US$13 billion in economic benefits for the US in the last school year. AIEF said most foreign students were studying science or business.

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