■ EARTHQUAKES
Quake shakes north
A moderate earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale rattled northern Taiwan yesterday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The epicenter of the earthquake, which struck at 6:54am, was about 46km east of Ilan County, at a depth of 4km, the Central Weather Bureau said in a statement.
■ CULTURE
Seminar highlights Bo Yang
An international symposium on the work of Taiwan's most renowned writer, Bo Yang (柏楊), will take place tomorrow and on Sunday at the National University of Tainan. Bo is a writer and historian, as well as a human-rights activist. Bo, 87, has authored more than 200 works. He was born in 1920 in China. He followed the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government to Taiwan after the Chinese civil war. Bo was later imprisoned on Green Island for nine years until 1977 over alleged criticism of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石). Bo also criticized elements of Chinese tradition and what he considered old-fashioned culture in two of his better-known books, Soy Vat Culture and Shaking the Soy Vat. The New York Times has praised him as "China's Voltaire." Late last year, the university bestowed on him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his broad achievements in literature and history, as well as his contributions to the promotion of human rights and democracy in Taiwan.
■ CULTURE
Taichung bids for award
Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) said yesterday that he might fly to London next month to introduce his city to the judges who will select winners of the 2007 World Leadership Awards. More than 400 cities around the world are invited each year to compete for awards in 15 categories by submitting details on city projects related to architecture and civil engineering, culture and the arts, communication, economy and employment, education and youth development, health, transportation, urban renewal and utilities. Hu said Taichung was the first Taiwanese city nominated for the awards since they began in 2005. Taichung is competing for the arts and culture award. Taichung will be competing in that category against cities such as Lima, Peru, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Expressing pride in seeing his city nominated for an international award, Hu said that he wanted to deliver the presentation on Taichung's project himself to help his city win the best possible score.
■ CULTURE
Marionette exhibit opens
An exhibition on traditional Czech marionette theater and Bohemian culture opened on Tuesday at the National Taiwan Museum in Taipei City, organizers said yesterday. Council for Cultural Affairs Minister Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) presided over the opening ceremony. Also present at the opening was Czech Deputy Minister of Culture Jaromir Talir. The exhibition, which will run until Jan. 6, features an introduction to the history of marionette theater and performance venues, Wong said. She said that museum-goers would be able to appreciate the essential elements of traditional marionette theater and the background to many of the stories popularly performed in this form of puppet theater. Several marionette performances will be held during the exhibition, she said.
■ HEALTH
Troops aid dengue program
The Tainan City Government has asked for military support for its pesticide spraying program as the number of dengue fever cases in the city approaches 900. Sixty military personnel entered the city's northern district yesterday to join health officials on a two-week spraying campaign. City health officials said Tainan was in the midst of its worst ever outbreak of dengue fever, with the number of cases of the mosquito-borne disease reaching 873 since mid-June. Health officials believed that the outbreak would only ease next month when the weather turns colder. The local government first requested military assistance last month to ensure the safety of participants at a national athletics meeting.
■ CRIME
Skipper forgives hijackers
The skipper of a Taiwanese fishing boat recently hijacked by nine Filipino deckhands in waters off Mauritius in the southwestern Indian Ocean has decided not to prosecute. Fisheries Agency said the Kaohsiung-based Rueichihfa sailed into the Mauritian capital of Port Louis on Tuesday and Mauritius maritime authorities boarded the vessel and detained the nine men for questioning. Captain Huang Ruei-ying (黃瑞蔭) was reported to be safe. At a Port Louis police station, the Filipino deckhands complained they had been mistreated, but said they would forgo their wages if released and would appreciate it if the captain would buy them air tickets back to the Philippines. Huang said he forgave the mutineers even though they abducted him at knifepoint and seized control of the vessel because he did not want to see the "young men" go to jail for their impulsive act.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift