ASTRONOMY
Equinox brightens night
The spring equinox tomorrow would be an ideal time to view zodiacal light, a phenomenon caused when sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust illuminates the night sky, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. On the vernal equinox, the sun passes directly above the equator, resulting in a day of equal darkness and light, on which the sun rises precisely in the east and sets due west. The weeks around the equinox are the best times for viewing zodiacal light, as this is when the plane of the solar system, where interplanetary dust resides, tilts steeply up from the western horizon after sunset. The equinox this year coincides with a new moon on Wednesday, creating favorable conditions to view the phenomenon in locations that are free from urban light, the museum said.
WEATHER
Warm weather coming
Temperatures are to rise around Taiwan over the next few days, peaking as high as 34°C by Friday in some places, although a cold front could bring cooler weather and rain to the north next weekend, forecasters said. The weather is to become summerlike in the daytime, but with large temperature gaps between daytime and nighttime, said Daniel Wu (吳德榮), a former Central Weather Bureau forecaster. The weather could be cloudy in some parts of the country, he added. Forecast models show a cold front approaching Taiwan from Saturday to Tuesday next week, bringing cooler temperatures and rain to the north, Wu said.
FRAUD
Fake rebate site blocked
A deceptive Web site impersonating a government Web site through which a planned NT$6,000 tax rebate can be claimed has been blocked by authorities, the Ministry of Finance said on Saturday. The phishing page registered as 6000govtw.com was designed as a scam, the ministry said, adding that it has reported the fake page to prosecutors, and its origin is under investigation. The authorities blocked the page immediately upon discovering it, the ministry said, adding that people should remain alert and call the 165 anti-fraud hotline to report any suspected cases of fraud regarding the rebate program. The URL of the fake page looks similar to 6000.gov.tw, which has been registered by the government and is to be launched on Wednesday as one of several ways for people to register to receive a NT$6,000 cash handout. The government is set to distribute NT$6,000 to each Taiwanese and foreign national as a rebate from last year’s surplus tax revenue, with the budget bill for the disbursement expected to pass into legislation on Friday.
AVIAN FLU
Chickens culled in Kinmen
The first domestic case of H9N2 avian influenza in Taiwan was on Thursday found at a chicken farm in Kinmen County, leading to the culling of 4,551 chickens to prevent the spread of the virus, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said on Friday. Disinfection work was conducted, along with testing on chickens from two other farms within 1km of the infected farm, bureau Deputy Director Hsu Jung-pin (徐榮彬) said, adding that no infected livestock were found. The bureau also monitored the health of one farm worker and 20 infection prevention staff members — the only people known to have had contact with the chicken — with none displaying any symptoms related to H9N2.
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