■HEALTH
Kaohsiung fights dengue
The Kaohsiung City Government said yesterday it would complete plans by the end of next month to keep dengue fever outbreaks in the city under control. Deputy Kaohsiung Mayor Lee Yung-te (李永得) urged city government branches during a cross-departmental meeting to integrate their resources to stop the outbreaks from spreading. Lee made the call after the number of dengue fever cases in the city increased by 23 between Sunday and Tuesday, bringing the total cases in Kaohsiung this year to 377.
■SPORTS
Ma to help baseball
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said he would “revive the glory” of baseball in Taiwan, proposing to amend the Sports Lottery Issue Act (運動彩券發行條例) to toughen the penalty for match-fixing. Ma said the punishments, which would include fines or sentences, in the amended law would be double those at present. The Sports Lottery Issue Act states that those who defraud or use other illegal means to jeopardize the fairness of a sports competition are subject to a sentence of up to five years or a fine of up to NT$10 million (US$312,500).
■SOCIETY
TES holds X-mas bazaar
The Taipei European School (TES) is inviting the public to join its annual Christmas Bazaar, which will be held tomorrow at the Swire European Primary Campus in Shilin (士林), starting at 10am. Among other activities, a Christmas tree lighting, raffles, games and food will be offered, the school said, adding that part of the proceeds will go to help less fortunate children in Taipei. More information is available at (02)8145-9007.
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