WEATHER
Storm to bring rain
A tropical storm expected to sweep over waters east of Taiwan could bring rain to most parts of the country, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, Tropical Storm Leepi was centered 610km southeast of the nation’s southernmost tip, moving in a northeasterly direction at a speed of 26kph. Leepi is packing maximum sustained winds of 72kph and gusts reaching 101kph, the bureau said. Forecasters said the storm is not likely to directly hit the nation, but its outer periphery could bring showers to eastern areas and mountainous areas in the north, and downpours to central and southern areas. Leepi, which means “waterfalls” in Lao, is the fourth storm of this year’s Pacific typhoon season.
AGRICULTURE
Wine wins French prize
A wine made in Taiwan has won a silver medal in a renowned French wine contest, an agriculture official said yesterday, adding that it is the first time a Taiwanese wine has won an international award. The Domaine Shu Sheng fortified wine Blanc 2005 won the Vinalies d’Argent medal at the Vinalies Internationales 2013, organized by the Union des Oenologues de France. Taiwan has won international awards for other alcoholic drinks, such as its strawberry wines and sorghum liquors, but winning one for a locally made grape wine is a first, officials from the Agriculture and Food Agency said. The wine competed with 3,400 wines from 40 countries. Winning a medal in the contest “provides the winemaker with a universal marketing tool” to promote their product, the Vinalies Internationales Web site said. The Agriculture and Food Agency said the silver medal would boost sales of the award-winning product by at least 30 percent in the local market alone.
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