SOCIETY
S Korean heartthrob visits
South Korean actor and singer Kim Soo-hyun, who shot to regional fame with his role in the hit TV series My Love From the Star, is to sing for local fans as well as try his hand at being a pastry chef in Taipei tomorrow. During a two-hour meeting with fans, the 26-year-old entertainer is expected to sing five songs and decorate a cake for attendees whose birthday is tomorrow, the promoters said. The event, dubbed “1st Memories in Taiwan,” is part a promotional Asian tour that began in Seoul this month and is set to take him to eight cities in six countries. Kim became a household name in South Korea in 2011 after he starred in the teen drama Dream High, and gained wider fame after he played an alien in My Love From the Star. The film is a romantic comedy about an alien who lands on Earth and falls in love with a young woman played by South Korean actress Jun Ji-hyun. Kim is scheduled to arrive at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport today and leave for Shanghai tomorrow after his event.
CHARITY
Book sale set for TAS
The Taipei American School’s (TAS) Orphanage Club is to hold its annual book sale tomorrow from 10am to 5pm at the school. The club has collected thousands of books, as well as magazines, comic books and games. The books include best-sellers, classics, biographies, children’s and young adult titles, English-teaching books and cookbooks. There is a collection of Asian writers, material about Taiwan and hundreds of Chinese-language books. Money raised from the event is to provide funding for orphans and other children in Taiwan. The Orphanage Club is one of the largest student organizations at the school. The school is at 800 Zhongshan N Rd Sec 6, Tianmu (天母).
DIPLOMACY
Photo show highlights ties
An exhibit of 180 photographs tracing the friendship between the Republic of China and the US will go on tour for a second time next week to mark the 35th anniversary of the establishment of the US’ Taiwan Relations Act. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said the tour of the “Hello, Mr President!” exhibit will begin in Greater Kaohsiung on Tuesday and run until April 12. It will move to Chiayi for three-and-a-half weeks, from April 16 to May 11, and then go to Greater Taichung, where it is to be displayed from May 19 to June 12. The final stop is Hualien from June 18 to July 14. The exhibit features photos, some dating back to 1949, from the Central News Agency, the Presidential Office and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) History Institute. The exhibition is divided into six sections: “Milestones in ROC-USA Bilateral Relations Since 1949,” “Hello, Mr President,” “A Tribute to Reciprocity,” “Summit Talks,” “Soft Diplomacy” and “Of Peace & Mutual Trust — A New Era for ROC-USA Bilateral Relations.” Also on display will be memorabilia, including official letters between the two governments.
EARTHQUAKE
No damage from temblor
The earthquake that jolted eastern Taiwan at 8:19pm on Wednesday had a magnitude of 5.6, the Central Weather Bureau said. The quake’s epicenter was at sea, about 66.8km east of Hualien County Hall at a depth of 16km, bureau officials said. The strongest tremor, with an intensity of 3, was recorded in Yilan and Hualien counties, while an intensity of 2 was felt in Taipei. No damage was reported from the quake. It represented a normal release of energy, the bureau said, adding that the tremor was not related to the magnitude 5.3 earthquake that struck in about the same area on Monday. Wednesday’s quake is the second-largest temblor recorded so far this year, after a magnitude 6.1 quake struck on Jan. 7.
WEATHER
Cold front arrives
Daytime high temperatures dropped by nearly 10°C in the north and northeast of the nation yesterday due to a cold front from China, the Central Weather Bureau said. The mercury dipped to about 11°C in those regions, with more showers and thunderstorms likely, forecasters said. The effects of the front might last through the weekend, with temperatures expected to be at their lowest tonight and tomorrow morning, the bureau said. Temperatures yesterday ranged between 11°C and 21°C in the north of the country, 14°C and 23°C in the center and 18°C and 27°C in the south, forecasters said. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Administration said the air quality in central and southern Taiwan is likely to worsen for the next few days.
CHARITY
Little S to join benefit
Talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣, better known as Little S), is scheduled to join four pop stars, including Chang Hui-mei (張惠妹), also known as A-mei (阿妹), at a charity concert in Taipei to support abuse victims, the organizers — Project WAO (Women as One) — said. Hsu and A-mei are set to sing a duet at the April 20 concert, which is to be held at the Taipei Arena, the organizers said. The concert was put together by A-mei, Na Ying (那英) from China, Tanya Chua (蔡健雅) from Singapore and Hong Kong’s Sandy Lam (林憶蓮). All proceeds will to go to the New Taipei City-based People Foundation to support its program for abused women and girls aged 10 to 18, organizers said.
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