HEALTH
Dengue fever cases increase
The year’s accumulated cases of dengue fever in the nation could in the coming few days surpass the previous high of 5,336 such cases recorded in 2002, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With a rate of 900 new cases per week since the beginning of the month, it is only a matter of time before the nation sees the worst dengue fever outbreak in its history, CDC Deputy Director Chou Jih-haw (周志浩) said. According to the health body, 4,750 dengue fever cases have been recorded as of Monday, 47 of which were the more severe hemorrhagic dengue fever, Chou said. There is no sign of a slowdown of the outbreak in the south because the weather there remains warm, the CDC said. Cases of the mosquito-borne disease are likely to peak about early next month, the body said, adding that it does not rule out the possibility that the outbreak will continue into next year.
SOCIETY
Races to showcase Tainan
A marathon is scheduled to be held in Tainan next month along a route that will allow competitors to take in the coastal landscapes and natural beauty of the southern city, the organizers said yesterday. The route will take the runners along sections of Tainan’s coastline, past salt ponds, fishing grounds and small villages, Southwest Coast Scenic Area Director Cheng Jung-feng (鄭榮峰) said. Along the way, the runners may also see endangered black-faced spoonbills and black-bellied terns, which are overwintering in Taiwan, he said. The event on Nov. 15 will take the form of a full marathon, a half marathon and an 8km walking competition, Cheng said. Tainan is one of the world’s major overwintering sites for black-faced spoonbills, hosting more than two-thirds of the birds’ global population, city officials said. Details of the races are available on www.beimenrun.com.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Municipalities win awards
Taipei City and New Taipei City have won awards from the World e-Governments Organization of Cities and Local Governments (WeGO) for their outstanding e-government practices, according to the international organization, which promotes the development of e-government. Taipei was rated “Best” in the awards category of services, while New Taipei City was listed as “Best” in the category of digital divide, the organization said on Wednesday. New Taipei City won the award in digital divide for its good use of cloud computing technologies to build a network connecting the data bases of all its administrative districts to streamline the services offered to its residents, the city government said in a statement.
CRIME
‘Hijacked’ vessel returns
Employees of a local fishing operator brought a locally registered boat back to Taiwan yesterday, after a suspected hijacking at sea by its Indonesian crew members left the Taiwanese skipper missing. Prosecutors and police boarded the Pingtung-registered Kuo-Rong No. 333 after it was returned to Donggang Harbor, and spent more than six hours gathering evidence and examining the vessel. Prosecutors said they would interview the owner of the ship, Lin Chin-hsi (林進西), and the family of missing skipper Chen Chih-wen (陳致文) to learn more details. Lin had sent two employees to retrieve the boat after it was discovered near Indonesia’s Lombok Island. The ship set out from Palau on June 12 for the Solomon Islands, but several satellite telephone calls to the skipper on June 19 went unanswered, leaving Lin to suspect a hijacking.
CULTURE
Japan poet to attend festival
Renowned Japanese poet Shuntaro Tanikawa is set to attend the Taipei Poetry Festival, which opens a series of poetry events around the city beginning tomorrow. The poet and translator, 82, is one of the most widely read poets in Japan. He is scheduled to give talks and answer questions from audience members in addition to attending the festival’s screening of a documentary about his life, according to the Taipei City Department of Cultural Affairs. Tanikawa has published more than 70 books of poetry. His book Floating the River in Melancholy won the American Book Award in 1989. Six other poets from around the world are set to speak at the festival, including Ukraine’s Oksana Lutsyshyna, the UK’s Joe Dunthorne and China’s Tian Yuan (田原) and Yao Feng (姚風). This year’s festival, Labor for Ideal, runs through Nov. 2 at various venues in Taipei.
AVIATION
VietJet to fly to Ho Chi Minh
Vietnam-based budget airline VietJet said on Wednesday it would start operating a route between Ho Chi Minh City and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Dec. 12 to meet growing demand for air travel between Vietnam’s largest city and northern Taiwan. The increase in demand is a result of advances in trade, tourism and cultural relations between the two countries in recent years, the low-cost carrier said, referencing Taiwan’s position as the third-largest foreign investor in Vietnam after Japan and Singapore. “The demand for travel for tourism and business purposes [between Taiwan and Vietnam] is growing all the time,” VietJet business development manager Desmond Lin said. Tickets are set to start at an introductory rate of about US$45 for the 3 hour, 25 minute flight.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods