■ Politics
TSU head shortens US trip
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Su Chin-chiang (蘇進強) is scheduled to depart for the US on Saturday for a six-day visit. Liu Chia-sheng (劉嘉生), director of the TSU's administrative department, said that Su originally wanted to visit the US for 10 days but decided to shorten the trip to six days so that he could take part in the nomination of the party's candidates for the year-end city and county-chief elections. Liu said that Su's trip has been arranged by the TSU's supporters on the US West Coast. Su will mainly stay in Los Angeles, where he will preside over the inauguration of the TSU's West Coast and East Coast chapters in the US. The party's supporters in New York will travel to Los Angeles for the inauguration ceremony. Su will also visit the Los Angeles City government and meet local politicians before returning to Taiwan on July 21.
■ Environment
EPA tackles overpackaging
In line with a government policy to reduce overpackaging, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has initiated a nationwide tour to promote eco-friendly concepts, an EPA spokesman said yesterday. The EPA will hold 20 seminars in cities and counties around Taiwan and on Penghu and Kinmen through Aug. 20 to help businesses get ready in time for the implementation of the policy by providing them with a detailed explanation of the new moves, the spokesman said. The first phase of the policy is slated to be put into place in July next year and will require businesses, including bakeries and manufacturers of cosmetics and liquor, to refrain from overpackaging their products, he said.
■ Agriculture
`Authentic' local rice touted
The first batch of "authentic" Taiwanese rice certified by the Food and Agriculture Administration under the Council of Agriculture through DNA testing will hit the market soon and officials yesterday called for consumer support for the product. In a bid to provide consumers with high-quality local rice amid fierce foreign competition after Taiwan entered the WTO in 2002, the administration will sponsor a series of activities to promote 36 brands of locally planted rice labeled with a "CAS" certificate at major distribution centers and shops across Taiwan through Oct. 31, administration officials said. The aim of the promotion is in part to encourage the rice industry to honestly display the species, quality and the production site of their merchandise, and in part to help build consumer confidence in domestic rice, the officials said.
■ Health
Oranges, sex link questioned
Department of Health (DOH) officials yesterday expressed concern about claims made by two medical practitioners that green oranges grown in Taiwan could be used to treat obesity, baldness and sexual dysfunction. Chen Lu-hung (陳陸宏), director-general of the Bureau of Food Safety, acknowledged that oranges are a good fruit but said that it was inappropriate to declare that eating the rind of green oranges can help people lose weight because such a claim would mislead consumers. Chen said promoters of any food item are prohibited by law from declaring that their product is effective in treating certain diseases. He said he will contact the Council of Agriculture (COA) to investigate the case, since it was the COA that sponsored the presentation promoting green oranges.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
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