■ RESOURCES
Water stores looking good
Abundant rainfall brought by the summer's typhoons has ensured enough water supplies for household and industrial use through next June, Water Resources Agency officials said yesterday. The officials said reservoirs across Taiwan proper contained a healthy volume of water. Water for rice irrigation next spring has been secured in all parts of the country except Nankan, the largest of the Matsu island group. As of the end of last month, Nankan reservoirs only contained 129,000 tonnes of water, which officials said was only enough to last through next month. If rainfall on Nankan does not increase this month and next month, the island could face a water shortage in the months ahead, the officials said.
■ EMPLOYMENT
Job Web site launched
The Council of Labor Affairs has completed its launch of a Web-based career and job guide to arm job hunters with detailed information to find employment, the council said yesterday. The council has completed data entry on 71 job categories in 15 industries and expects those figures to continue to grow in days to come, the officials said. Nearly 90,000 people have surfed the job Web site, the design of which is roughly based on advice in the US Career Guide to Industries and the Occupational Outlook Handbook the officials said. The Web site provides descriptions of available jobs, including tasks, salary, work hours, location, promotion prospects and desired skills, training, work experience and education for the position, the council said.
■ HEALTH
Disabilities on the rise
The number of disabled people and people with psychological problems topped 1 million as of the end of September, the Ministry of the Interior said. The number of people reporting psychological problems grew the most. The number of people with limb disabilities totaled 402,000, followed by those with impaired hearing at 107,000, those with organ disabilities at 102,000, those with multiple disabilities at 97,000, those with chronic mental illnesses at 95,000 and those with intellectual disabilities at nearly 90,000. Compared with figures from 1999, the number of disabled people increased by 55.77 percent. The number of people suffering from chronic psychological conditions grew at the fastest pace. Officials said that out of every 10,000 people, there are 42 chronic psychiatric patients. In terms of gender, men with such conditions slightly outnumber women. Most people suffering from psychological problems were between 45 and 64 years old.
■ POLITICS
Chen Chin-jun to visit Kinmen
Executive Yuan Secretary-General Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻), who doubles as governor of Fujian Province, is scheduled to visit Kinmen tomorrow for an inspection. Chen, in his capacity as the new Fujian governor, is expected to meet with officials from the Kinmen County Government, Executive Yuan officials said. Chen's predecessor, Yen Chung-cheng (顏忠誠), retired in May and Yang Cheng-hsi (楊誠璽), a section chief of the Fujian Provincial Government, stepped in as acting governor until a replacement could be named. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) appointed Chen Chin-jun on Nov. 21. Chen Chin-jun said he wants to improve the communication between the central government and outlying islands.
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