■ Health
Flu vaccinations expanded
The Department of Health will expand targets for a government-funded flu vaccination program in light of the low vaccination rate this year, officials said yesterday. Starting tomorrow, the targets will be further expanded to cover all children up to three years old, adults aged 60 or over, people suffering from severe injuries or diseases, international airline crew members, hospital volunteer workers, community pharmacists, medical lab workers and school nurses, department officials said.
■ Environment
Kinmen bay to get facelift
The Executive Yuan has directed the Water Resources Agency under the Ministry of Economic Affairs to clean up the Gouyu Bay area of Kinmen, after the military stopped handling waste ammunition there earlier this year. The project is part of government efforts to respond to calls from New Party Legislator Wu Cheng-dian (吳成典) and Kinmen residents to improve the bay's landscape, better manage the environment and protect the island's beach ecology. The beautification project will integrate the resources and expertise of different agencies and aims to create a better coastal environment that is favorable to leisure development on the offshore island, said an official. The agency mapped out a plan for the improvement project after the Ministry of National Defense called a halt to its practice of exploding waste ammunition in the bay on Aug. 3.
■ Health
Illegal pesticides rife
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) claimed yesterday that the market is swamped with contraband pesticides and urged law enforcement agencies to step up their crackdown on the chemicals in order to safeguard public health. Lai made the remarks at a news conference, where he displayed 20 kinds of contraband pesticide he had purchased in the past three days to highlight that they are readily available and that law enforcement is lax in this regard. Tsao Tien-min (曹天民), president of an association on sustainable crop management, noted that annual pesticide consumption totals around NT$5 billion (US$151.51 million) in Taiwan and estimated that one-third of that amount was contraband.
■ Politics
Recall motion set for Friday
The third recall motion against President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will be put to a vote on Friday, the legislature's Procedure Committee decided yesterday. The pan-blue camp initiated the third recall after first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) and three presidential aides were indicted on corruption in connection with Chen's handling of his "state affairs fund." The legislature will have a two-day conference to review the third recall, even though Chen has refused to submit a written rebuttal once again. Pan-blue lawmakers ignored a call by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳) to withdraw the latest motion. Tsai said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was embroiled in a similar scandal over the handling of his mayoral allowance fund. Meanwhile, a number of long-stalled bills, including the supplemental budget for partial funding of the purchase of three US major weapons, were again blocked from being put onto the legislative agenda.
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