■ Health
Stop smoking and win
The Department of Health yesterday urged smokers to join the biennial international Quit and Win stop-smoking competition. The competition, endorsed by the World Health Organization, would award one participant who successfully abstains from smoking between May 2 and May 29 with a prize of US$10,000. In addition, one participant registered in Taiwan will receive a NT$600,000 cash prize and another six participants will get prizes of NT$10,000 each. According to the Bureau of Health Promotion, 37.2 percent of the contestants who participated two years ago remained smoke-free one year later. Contestants must sign up before April 30. More information is available at www.quitandwin.org.tw or by calling (02) 2776-6133.
■ Traffic
Taipei bridges closed
Municipal authorities started to make security checks yesterday of 13 key bridges in Taipei and will continue the inspections until April 16 to ensure the public's safety. The 13 medium-sized and large-sized bridges scattered across the city, such as the Peiling Bridge in the Shihlin District and the Jingmei Bridge in the Wenshan District, will be wholly or partially closed for security checks from midnight until 5am each day during the inspection period, according to a spokesman for the Bureau of Public Works' Department of Maintenance. Pedestrians and vehicles using the bridges and adjacent areas should proceed slowly and with caution and keep a close watch on traffic lights and nearby maintenance facilities, the spokesman said.
■ Election
DPP says blues must pay
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus suggested yesterday that the pan-blue alliance use its election subsidy to serve as the deposit for a ballot recount of the March 20 presidential election. Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), DPP whip in the legislature, said that the Code of Civil Procedure (刑事訴訟法) stipulates that if a client will not pay for the expenditure, the court cannot carry out the recount. The DPP has, therefore, suggested that the pan-blue alliance use its subsidy, or NT$30 per vote garnered, to serve as the deposit. Pan-blue presidential candidate, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰), and his running mate, People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), garnered 6,442,452 votes. "The people have no obligation to pay the estimated more than NT$100 million [as a deposit]," Tsai said, adding that it is "illegal and unreasonable" and the DPP "strongly opposes such a move." He said that Lien and Soong could use their more than NT$190 million subsidy to serve as the deposit for the vote recount, and that the party that loses the suit will pay the expenses.
■ Legislature
Hurry up, Liu says
Cabinet Secretary-General Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) yesterday urged the Legislative Yuan to hurry back to its review work. She said that the review of many major economic bills has been put on hold since the presidential election, adding that even in the heat of the presidential election campaign, the legislative process had not stalled. She said that, since the election, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-People First Party (PFP) alliance has been only concerned about the recount of the ballots and an investigation into the shooting of the president.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai