TRAVEL
Bosnia to grant visa waiver
Bosnia and Herzegovina has decided to grant Republic of China passport holders visa-waiver privileges, bringing the number of countries and regions Taiwanese can visit without a visa or landing visa to 128, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Yaser Cheng (鄭泰祥), deputy director-general of the ministry’s Department of European Affairs, said that the southeastern European country has not yet announced the maximum stay for visa-waiver visitors or the program’s implementation date, but he expected it to do so soon. Separately, Cheng advised Taiwanese visitors to the UK to remain vigilant following a number of incidents in which tourists have encountered fake police officers who demanded to see their credentials and took their wallets.
SOCIETY
Google map used in case
A judge recently used a Google map showing an unleashed dog as evidence a man was responsible for his neighbor’s bike accident. The defendant, surnamed Lee (李), denied being the dog’s owner and causing injury through negligence. The victim, surnamed Peng (彭), testified that he became scared after the dog began chasing him when he was riding his bicycle in July last year, as a result of which he fell and injured his forehead. Judge Song Kuo-chen said yesterday that a two-year-old Google Street View picture showed the dog standing in Lee’s yard, which meant that Lee was its owner. The judge fined Lee NT$59,000.
WEATHER
Mercury hits year high
Temperatures of 36.2oC were recorded in Taipei yesterday, surpassing the year’s previous high of 36.1oC on Tuesday, according to the Central Weather Bureau. The high was recorded at 11:57am, following days of sunny weather caused by a Pacific high pressure system. The weather pattern has affected the whole nation, with daily highs ranging between 30oC and 35oC, the bureau said. However, showers were likely later in the day in southern and southeastern regions because of an approaching tropical depression, the bureau said.
AVIATION
Airport numbers set record
The number of passengers passing though Taiwanese airports reached a 10-year high from January to May, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The ministry said passenger traffic through the country’s 17 airports, including three international ones, in the first five months of the year was 18.23 million, an increase of 13.9 percent from the same period last year and the highest in a decade. The number of passengers on international routes, including Hong Kong and Macau, was more than 9.53 million, up 10.9 percent year-on-year, ministry statistics showed. Air travel between Taiwan and China also increased in the first five months of the year, with passenger numbers rising 31.4 percent to more than 3.66 million year-on-year, the figures showed. The ministry attributed the increases in part to the creation of the “Northeast Asia Golden Aviation Circle” with direct flights from Taipei International Airport (Songshan) to Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai and Gimpo Airport in Seoul. Passenger traffic at Songshan airport in the first five months of the year was 2.23 million, about 12.23 percent of the total, a ministry official said.
TRAVEL
Youth agency launches draw
The government is offering prizes to young people who share pictures of their overseas exchange experiences in order to promote more international exchange activities, the National Youth Commission said yesterday. Young people are encouraged to share up to three photos from international exchanges such as volunteer programs, internships or working holidays, the commission said. A 140-word description should be attached to the pictures, the commission added. Not only will this campaign promote international exchanges, but it will also allow countries around the world to learn more about the many aspects of Taiwan, the commission said. A total of 43 prizes are up for grabs, with the winners being chosen at random. The prizes include cameras, luggage locks, suitcases, clothing and cellphone straps. All entries must be submitted before Aug. 31 and should be posted online via the iYouth (Youth International Exchange Information) Web site.
SOCIETY
Nationwide quake drill
An earthquake drill to be held on Sept. 21, in which school children around the country will take part, was described by Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) at a quarterly meeting on disaster prevention and protection as a “meaningful event” that will require cooperation by relevant agencies. The goal of the drill is to teach the nation’s students how to take cover within the space of one minute, the Natural Disaster Prevention and Protection Office said. The office said that drills for natural disasters have been held every Sept. 21 since 2000. Chen also ordered that a task force be created to study ways to enhance the country’s infrastructure after reading a research report by the National Science Council on possible scenarios of tsunamis hitting Taiwan.
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