The Cabinet, led by Premier and vice president-elect Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), will resign en masse on Jan. 31 before the Eighth Legislature takes its oath of office on Feb. 1, Executive Yuan spokesman Philip Yang (楊永明) said yesterday.
“In accordance with regulations and conventions, the Executive Yuan will call a special Cabinet meeting on Jan. 31 to approve its mass resignation,” Yang told a press conference held following the weekly Cabinet meeting.
Yang said he had no information on who would be appointed premier by the president.
At the Cabinet meeting, Wu instructed the Central Election Commission (CEC) and the Ministry of the Interior to find ways to prevent a recurrence of the problems in Saturday’s elections, in which more than 13,000 servicemen on duty on Election Day were -unable to cast their ballots, while residents of outlying islands failed to vote because airports on the islands were shrouded in fog.
Meanwhile, Construction and Planning Agency -Director--General Yeh Shih-wen (葉世文) briefed the Cabinet on the progress of two low-cost housing projects in -Fujhou Borough (浮州), Banciao District (板橋), new Taipei City (新北市), and near a planned mass rapid transit (MRT) station in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口).
The Banciao project, which comprises 4,480 residential units, is scheduled to be completed by 2015; the Linkou project, which consists of 3,960 units, is scheduled for completion in 2014.
Out of a total of 8,249 applications received to purchase the houses, 5,673, or 69 percent, were filed by Taipei residents, while 2,262, or 27 percent, came from New Taipei City residents, Yeh said.
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