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Taiwan News Quick Take

■ CRIME

Alleged bookies arrested

Sixteen people were arrested in southern Taiwan early yesterday as part of a campaign to eliminate gambling related to the presidential election, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said. The suspects were arrested for placing bets on who will win the election. Members of the bureau's Southern Taiwan Crime Fighting Operation raided four underground gambling rings in Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung cities and counties late on Tuesday night and arrested the 16 people, including four bookies. Bureau officials said their information showed the bookies had already made profits of several million NT dollars even before the election is held. Bureau authorities urged the public to refrain from placing bets on presidential candidates, saying that gambling could have an impact on the election's outcome, with bookies manipulating the result by offering big stakes.



■ HEALTH

Boy declared HIV-positive

Taipei County Government health officials confirmed on Tuesday that a three-year-old boy has become the county's first child known to be infected with HIV. The officials said the boy's parents are HIV-positive; the father is in prison and the child is being cared for by his drug-addict mother, who is in rehabilitation at a detention center. Health officials had arranged to give the boy a blood test and the test result showed him to be HIV-positive. The officials said they were still trying to establish whether eight other children born to HIV-infected mothers in Taipei County are also infected with the virus. They called on pregnant women to take an HIV test, adding that the county government's Public Health Bureau would investigate and intervene in the cases of those who refuse.