WEATHER
Koppu to bring rain today
Typhoon Koppu is moving at a slow pace, but its peripheral cloud system is expected to bring rain to the nation’s northern and eastern regions starting from today, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. As of yesterday morning, Koppu was about 810km from Taiwan, moving west at a speed of 10kph toward Luzon Island in the Philippines, the bureau said. The storm was previously expected to move closer to Taiwan on Tuesday, but the bureau said that it would take longer for Koppu to bring heavy rain to the nation, given that it is now moving at a slower pace. Starting from Tuesday, Taiwan is expected to feel a stronger impact from the typhoon and see heavy rain due to its peripheral current, the bureau said.
HEALTH
Chickens to be culled
About 20,000 free-range chickens at a farm in Changhua County’s Dacheng Township (大城) are to be culled today after they tested positive for influenza A virus subtype H5N2, a highly pathogenic variant of avian influenza. It is the second confirmed case of bird flu at the farm this year, which resumed poultry farming in July after a mass culling and disinfection, Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Director-General Chang Su-san (張淑賢) said, adding that sentinel chickens were raised during the preoperative period to ensure that the virus was not active in the environment. Migrant birds might be a possible source of contagion, as the affected farm is located along the shore and it is migration season, Chang said.
PUBLIC HEALTH
Dengue cases reach 24,874
Another 367 cases of dengue fever have been reported in Taiwan, bringing the total number of infections since the start of May to 24,874, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. In Tainan, 183 new cases were reported on Friday, which was 16 fewer than on the same day last week, the CDC said. Kaohsiung reported 173 new cases, 39 more than a week earlier. From the start of the outbreak up until Friday, the three worst-affected areas are Tainan, with 20,172 reported cases, Kaohsiung (4,274) and Pingtung County (100), CDC figures showed. Since May 1, there have been 106 confirmed fatalities in the nation from the disease, the CDC said. While 22,500 dengue patients have recovered, 44 are still being treated in intensive care units, CDC statistics showed. CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) predicted that numbers of reported cases of dengue fever in Kaohsiung would start to slow by the end of this month as the weather cools.
ELECTIONS
FTP calls for candidates
The newly formed Free Taiwan Party (FTP), which advocates Taiwan independence, is inviting people who share its political ideals to join it and run for seats in next year’s legislative elections. A new political party needs to nominate candidates in at least 10 of the 73 electoral districts in order to qualify to run for seats in the Legislative Yuan. The FTP is hoping that if it can qualify to run, it could win 5 percent of the votes and win one of 34 party-list seats, FTP Chairman Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) said. Tsay said that by representing the FTP in the Jan. 16 elections, politicians interested in public office could build their reputation through increased public exposure. However, the FTP, as a new party, is concentrating more on the 2018 city and county council elections, he added.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
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
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
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