HEALTH
Meningitis cases confirmed
Three cases of meningitis infection have been confirmed between Thursday last week and Monday, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, cautioning the public of the worldwide meningitis season every spring and winter. The three patients — an eight-month-old girl in Hualien County, a three-year-old boy in Taitung County and a 16-year-old boy in Greater Taichung — all experienced fever before being hospitalized, the agency said. While the two younger children’s conditions have stabilized, with one in the general ward and the other discharged, the 16-year-old, who developed symptoms of neck stiffness, a bleeding skin rash, impaired consciousness and finally a coma, is in critical condition and has been placed in intensive care. As of yesterday, a total of five cases of meningitis have been confirmed this year (two of Group B, two of Group C and one ungroupable), the CDC said.
TRAVEL
Bangkok alert continues
No Taiwanese have been reported to have been affected by anti-government protests in Bangkok, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official said yesterday, adding that the nation’s representative office there is closely monitoring the situation. However, ministry spokesperson Anna Kao (高安) urged Taiwanese planning to travel there to be alert and to avoid visits to crowded areas. The ministry is maintaining a “gray” travel alert for Thailand, which has been in place since earlier this month. It is the lowest of the government’s four-color travel alerts and urges caution on the part of travelers. Kao’s remarks came after anti-government protesters stormed the Thai Ministry of Finance and broke into the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs compound a day earlier in a bid to overthrow Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
SOCIETY
Products need votes
The Changhua County Government wants the public to vote online for the products and food specialties they think are most representative of the county, Deputy Changhua County Commissioner Ko Cheng-fang (柯呈枋) said yesterday. A panel of 30 experts has selected 24 food products and six other items for the public to choose from, Ko said. The products include fruit wine, taro cake, black rice, garlic snacks, tea sets and incense, he said. The county government has also invited 300 faculty members and students of Chung Chou University of Science and Technology to see, taste and touch the products before voting for the top 10, Ko said. The poll to pick the top 10 products began on Monday and runs through Dec. 9 on www.2013chaggift.com.tw.
HEALTH
MOFA protests H7N9 listing
MOFA said yesterday that its office in Japan has lodged a protest with the Japanese government and demanded a correction to a Web site that listed Taiwan as an area with the avian influenza (H7N9) virus. Ministry spokesperson Anna Kao (高安) said the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan contacted authorities in Tokyo and was told that the record of H7N9 infections in Taiwan and China had been listed separately. Kao was responding to Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-cher’s (黃偉哲) complaint earlier in the day that Japan added the number of H7N9 influenza cases in China to the count for Taiwan and listed Taiwan as an H7N9 alert area.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard