■ HEALTH
Five-in-one vaccine offered
A five-in-one vaccine will be available free of charge for infants and children starting today, replacing the traditional three-in-one vaccine, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Shih Wen-yih (施文儀) said yesterday. The vaccine, which will give protection against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio and hemophilus influenza type B, will be included in regular vaccination coverage among children, replacing the three-in-one shots that covered diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, he said. Under the new vaccination program, infants should receive the five-in-one vaccine at two months, four months, six months and 18 months of age, Shih said. In the past, parents had to pay between NT$800 and NT$1,200 per shot.
■ EDUCATION
HKU eyes Taiwanese
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has launched a recruitment drive in Taiwan, seeking local high school graduates with excellent academic performance whom it said would be awarded generous scholarships if they chose to study at HKU. The university said it would offer scholarships totaling HK$140,000 (US$18,000) over three years to students who score at least 54 in the scholastic ability tests and pass its English proficiency tests. The Ministry of Education on Feb. 24 published the results of this year’s general scholastic ability tests for high school graduates. These scores are teenagers’ ticket to university and college. This year, 112 of the more than 140,000 students who took the exam obtained a perfect score of 75. Students seeking enrollment at prestigious universities in Taiwan such as National Taiwan University must score more than 54.
■ AID
ICDF, Mercy Corps cooperate
The International Cooperation and Development Fund (Taiwan ICDF), which is affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is cooperating with the US charity Mercy Corps in hiring Haitian earthquake survivors to clean up debris and rebuild their homes, an official said yesterday. The “Employment Replaces Relief” program is designed to create jobs and allow Haitians displaced by the magnitude-7 earthquake that struck the Caribbean ally on Jan. 12 to rebuild their homes and livelihoods self-sufficiently, the official said. The program was launched on Feb. 1, with Mercy Corps responsible for four quake refugee settlement centers in Port-au-Prince, the official said, adding that the initial stage of the project would last six months. Under the program, Mercy Corps employs quake victims to clean up the wreckage and carry out temporary construction work, with each worker receiving US$5 per day.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Toyota slams into pillar
A Toyota collided with a pillar in front of a convenience store in Taichung County on Saturday as the driver was parking the car, local reports said yesterday. The driver, a 36-year-old woman, said she was putting the car into parking gear when her four-year-old Toyota Wish lurched forward and hit the store. “The car had stopped. But when I was shifting gears, it lurched forward on its own and the brakes did not work,” she said. No casualties were reported, but the driver’s mother, who was sitting in the front passenger seat when the incident occurred, was taken to hospital complaining of chest pains, reports said. A Toyota technician who rushed to the scene to assess the problem said an investigation would be launched.
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
Renovations on the B3 concourse of Taipei Main Station are to begin on Nov. 1, with travelers advised to use entrances near the Taiwan Railway or high-speed rail platforms or information counter to access the MRT’s Red Line. Construction is to be completed before the end of next year, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said last week. To reduce the impact on travelers, the NT$95 million (US$2.95 million) project is to be completed in four stages, it said. In the first stage, the hall leading to the Blue Line near the art exhibition area is to be closed from Nov. 1 to the end
Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) shopping area welcomed the most international visitors, followed by Taipei 101, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園), a list of the city’s most popular tourist attractions published by the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism showed. As of August, 69.22 million people had visited Taipei’s main tourism spots, a 76 percent increase from 39.33 million in the same period last year, department data showed. Ximending had 20.21 million visitors, followed by Taipei 101 at 8.09 million, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park at 6.28 million, Yangmingshan at 4.51 million and the Red House Theater (西門紅樓) in
Taiwan yesterday expelled four China Coast Guard vessels that entered Taiwan-controlled restricted waters off Lienchiang County (Matsu) shortly after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army announced the start of its “Joint Sword-2024B” drills around Taiwan. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a statement that it had detected two China Coast Guard ships west of Nangan Island (南竿) and another two north of Dongyin Island (東引) at 8am yesterday. After Chinese ships sailed into restricted waters off Matsu shortly afterward, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch deployed four patrol vessels to shadow and approach the vessels, it said. The incidents pushed up to 44 the number
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