NATIONAL DEFENSE
Ma approves 23 promotions
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has approved the promotion of 23 military officers to the ranks of major general or lieutenant general, the Ministry of National Defense announced yesterday. Of the 23, five will be promoted to lieutenants general, or two-star generals, including Hau Yi-chih (郝以知), a ministry counselor. Four of those to be promoted are Army Penghu Defense Commander Chou Hau-yu (周皓瑜), Navy Fleet Command deputy head Lu Chien-ti (盧前悌), Air Force Combat Command deputy head Ma Tzu-yung (馬自勇) and National Security Bureau Special Service Center deputy commander Hsu Yen-ching (許燕情). The other 18 people will be raised to the rank of major general, or one-star general. The conferral ceremony will be held tomorrow morning and will be attended by Ma and Minister of National Defense Kao Hua-chu (高華柱). The promotions will take effect on Sunday the ministry said.
TRAVEL
Tourism revenues rising
Tourism income generated in Taiwan reached a record high last year, but still lagged behind the other three Asian Tigers — Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea — according to the latest statistics from the Council for Economic Planning and Development. The council said the nation’s international tourism revenues last year reached more than US$11 billion, up 26.4 percent from the previous year. International tourist arrivals totaled 6.09 million, 9.34 percent more than in 2010. The remarks follow a recent report by the UN’s World Tourism Organization which listed the world’s top 25 nations and territories in terms of international tourism revenue. Hong Kong topped the Asian Tiger list with revenue of US$27.2 billion, in 10th place worldwide, followed by Singapore with US$18 billion at 15th and South Korea with US$12.3 billion at 22nd place, the report said. The council said that if Taiwan was included in the rankings, it would come in at 25th place.
POLITICS
Tibetan official to speak
The Kalon (minister) of the Tibetan government-in-exile’s Department of Information and International Relations, Dicki Chhoyang, will make a presentation on the foreign policies and current situation of the government-in-exile on Friday during her visit to Taiwan. The presentation will take place at the Legislative Yuan in English accompanied by simultaneous Mandarin translation. Co-organized by the Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama — the de facto embassy of the government-in-exile in Taiwan — and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), the lecture is open to the public, but online registration is required. To sign up or for more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/2012tibet.
MEDICINE
DOH tackles lack of ER staff
The Department of Health (DOH) has proposed a set of solutions to the increasing shortage of emergency room (ER) doctors amid accusations that they are underpaid and overworked. The solutions include a cash bonus of NT$120,000 per year for physicians who have completed ER training, enhancing safety in work environments and encouraging the transfer of patients from ER units to other units, the department said in a statement. Authorities will push for bills that support appropriate punishment in cases of medical negligence, it said. The statement came after a study found that 10 percent of the nation’s ER doctors leave their profession 10 years into their practice.
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
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read: