■ SOCIETY
Chen meets young envoys
The number of young men choosing diplomatic alternative service to fulfill their military service requirement has tripled since the program was launched in 2001 and 425 men have passed through the program, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday. Chen met with 105 young men who will be sent to the country's diplomatic allies to help with technical, agricultural, or health services for a year. He said the program has been successful because the positive attitude of the young people represents Taiwan's energy and vitality. While encouraging the recruits to humble themselves to experience the true meaning of "living to serve," Chen said he was very happy to see that many recruits who had completed their service had re-joined the overseas missions as a career move. Chen said that, so far, 38 former alternative service recruits had passed their examinations and joined the missions full-time.
■ POLITICS
KMT celebrates 113 years
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) will celebrate its 113th anniversary today in Chiayi City and appeal to the public by saying that it will put Taiwan first. Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and other KMT heavyweights will attend a party this afternoon in front of the Chiayi Baseball Stadium. KMT Cultural and Communication Committee head Huang Yu-cheng (黃玉振) said that the party decided to hold the event down south to highlight the plight of farmers. He said Ma would use the occasion to reiterate his campaign promise to raise the subsidy for elderly farmers. The party will be held from 4pm to 6pm.
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