■ Health
Anti-viral drugs on offer
Anti-viral drugs will be distributed to a larger num-ber of people in light of the increasing number of inter-species bird flu transmis-sions in nearby countries, according to the Center
for Disease Control. People over the age of 13 who have chronic disorders such as heart or lung disease or diabetes, along with people returning from bird-flu affected areas will be offered the antiviral medication Tamiflu if they develop flu symptoms. The drug will
also be given to farm workers, cullers, market workers and others who might come into contact with the bird-flu virus
strain. The center said the task of distributing the medicine will be delegated
to local health authorities.
In the past, Tamiflu was
only offered free of charge
to citizens over the age of
65. The center also assured the public yesterday that it had stepped up border surveillance at airports
and harbors.
■ business
Making tracks for beauty
The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) is trying to diversify into yet another field to help boost its revenues, this time launching a range of skin-care products today, just in times for Valentine's Day. TRA officials said the agency, which had great success when it re-launched its popular lunch boxes for passengers nostalgic for the old days of rail travel and
has also marketed wine laced with gold powder, is scheduled to present its high-quality skin-care pro-ducts, which use state-of-the-art nanotechnology, at three stations. The officials said that it will sell a six-item skin-care set at the Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung stations from today through Saturday. The sets are priced NT$8,800 (US$265.86) and only 500 are available.
■ Politics
Referendum money needed
The Central Election Com-mission (CEC) confirmed yesterday that the budget
for the March 20 referendum will be NT$300.88 million (US$9.09 million). The commission said that it has asked the Executive Yuan
to appropriate the money because some cities and counties have complained that they cannot begin preparatory work for the referendum. After the Cabinet appropriates the money, the CEC will then distribute it to local election commissions that will then have to prepare for the referendum.
■ Society
Anti-graft pledge made
The heads of local law-enforcement offices yes-terday said they will carry out a strict crackdown on
all potential bribery cases during the presidential election. The officials made the pledges during a series
of visits by Chinese Nation-alist Party (KMT) and
People First Party (PFP) lawmakers. Kaohsiung Prosecutor-General Chu Nan (朱楠) said that Kaohsiung officers, including prose-cutors, police officers and agents of the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Inves-tigation are all geared up
for the mission. Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office Spokesman Lin Ching-tsung (林慶宗) encouraged the public to provide secret
tips regarding potential
vote-buying cases. Taipei District Prosecutors' Office Spokesman Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達) also reminded candidates and their vote captains to stay away from potential vote-buying lures, such as free dinner parties, free trips and giveaways. Chen said law-enforcement officers will remain on the alert for crimes or violent disturbances during the campaign period.
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