■ POLITICS
KMT to hold candidate polls
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday it would determine the candidates for the Taitung and Taichung legislative by-elections via polls. The party will hold polls from Friday to Sunday and announce the result next Monday. KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will approve the nominees on Nov. 11, the KMT said. The Taitung legislative by-election is to be held after former KMT legislator Justin Huang (黃健庭) resigned on Oct. 15 to run in the Taitung County commissioner election. Taitung County Commissioner Kuang Li-chen (鄺麗貞) may also join the race. The Taichung legislative by-election will be held to fill the seat left vacant by former KMT legislator Chiang Lien-fu (江連福), whose election status was annulled over vote-buying.
■ SOCIETY
Poppy Day registration
People interested in taking part in the annual Remembrance Day Event on Nov. 15 and the banquet on the evening of Nov. 14 should register with the British Trade and Cultural Office (BTCO) in Taipei, organizers said. The annual service will be held at the former Kinkaseki prisoner of war camp in Jinguashih (金瓜石), Taipei County. Bus transportation will be available. Reservations for both the banquet and bus can be made by calling Clare Lear at the BTCO on (02) 8758-2056 or by e-mail: Clare.Lear@fco.gov.uk.
■ HEALTH
Vaccines may come soon
Free cervical cancer vaccines might be available for young Aboriginal and low-income women by the end of this year, the Department of Health said. “As long as the policy is approved by the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, it can be implemented starting in December,” Bureau of Health Promotion Deputy Director Chao Kun-yu (趙坤郁) said in response to complaints about a delay in implementing the policy.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
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