English adults need more brisk walking if they want to live longer

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/24
By: Taiwan News

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)–Shocking levels of inactivity among middle-aged people have been exposed in new research which revealed that more than six million English adults do not even manage a brisk 10-minute walk each month.

Public Health England (PHE) said 41% of the 15.3 million English adults aged 40 to 60 walk less than 10 minutes continuously each month at a brisk pace.

Health leaders encouraged people to walk to the shop instead of drive and take up walking on lunch breaks to add “many healthy years” to their lives.

Aiming to do a brisk walk – of at least 3 mph – for 10 minutes each day is likely to be seen as “achievable” by people who are chronically inactive, PHE said.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/24
By: Miao Tsung-han and Ko Lin

Taipei, Aug. 24 (CNA) A majority of Taiwanese people support the government’s push for cross-strait peace and believe further exchanges between the people in Taiwan and mainland China will help improve stable relations, according to a poll released on Thursday by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC).

The survey found that 87.8 percent of Taiwanese support the government’s proposal that both sides work to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, while 84.8 percent believe a healthy exchange between the people on both sides will help improve relations.

Meanwhile, 64.1 percent of those questioned also showed their support for the government to draw up relevant rules and regulations to improve cross-strait exchanges and interactions.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 25, 2017
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

Prosecutors should take action against Ministry of Education officials for passing a

special rule to benefit the board of the now-defunct Yung Ta Institute of Technology and Commerce, protesters said yesterday outside the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office in Taipei.

About a dozen protesters affiliated with the Taiwan Higher Education Union gathered outside the office, shouting slogans calling for the school’s assets to be taken over by the government, after the ministry declined to withdraw a new regulation extending the school’s transition deadline by three years before a government takeover clause takes effect.

The private school was closed in 2014 due to dwindling student numbers, with subsequent school board “transition” plans for school property failing to pass government review, even as the net value of the school’s assets declined from NT$1.26 billion (US$41.63 million at the current exchange rate) to NT$1.02 billion.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/23
By: Ku Chuan, Elaine Hou and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Aug. 23 (CNA) The relevant government agencies will communicate with the legislative caucuses of the various political parties over the next two days to discuss passage of a special budget for a major infrastructure development plan, Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said Wednesday.

Hsu said Taiwan is lagging behind other countries in terms of infrastructure investment, as indicated by its drop from 19th to 21st in the 2017 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook published in June.

However, once the special budget of NT$108.90 billion (US$3.67 billion) for the first phase of government’s “forward-looking infrastructure development plan” is passed in the Legislature, implementation will begin, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 23, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) is to be upgraded to a ministry,

Premier Lin Chuan (林全) announced yesterday.

The Cabinet decided that the agency would be upgraded to the “ministry of environmental protection and natural resources” to combine the management of national resources, climate change mitigation and soil and water conservation, which are currently handled by different agencies, under a unified chain of command, Lin said at a ceremony in Taipei to mark the 30th anniversary of the founding of the EPA.

The upgrade, which has been under discussion for more than a decade, is part of the Cabinet’s planned government restructuring, and the Executive Yuan expects to submit its restructuring plan to the Legislative Yuan next month for approval
.
However, some details still have to be worked out.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-08-21

Changhua County Magistrate Wei Ming Ku said their future wind farms will be able

to supply electricity to 5.8 million households a year. He was speaking in an interview with Radio Taiwan International on Monday. Last week, Taiwan had a major power outage which has brought the issue of Taiwan’s energy supply to the forefront.

Wei said that green energy is the future. He plans to turn Changhua Coastal Industrial Park into an Asia-Pacific smart green energy center. The park already has over NT$1 trillion in investments.

Wei spoke about their plan for an offshore wind farm. He said the plan is for them to build 50-100 wind turbines a year which will begin operations in 4 years. After 10 years, they will have built 800 turbines. Wei said wind power is better than solar energy because they can use wind power 24 hours a day. Wei spoke about the future of wind power in Changhua:    [FULL  STORY]

Taitung and Pingtung counties in southern Taiwan will close schools and offices on Tuesday

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/08/22
By: Central News Agency

Taipei, Aug. 21 — Taitung and Pingtung counties in southern Taiwan will close

schools and offices on Tuesday in anticipation of heavy rain from Tropical Storm Hato, according to the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration.

Meanwhile, ferry services between Donggang and Xiaoliuqiu in Pingtung County will also be suspended on Tuesday, but offices and schools in Kaohsiung will remain open as usual.

As of 9:15 p.m., the storm was 300 kilometers south-southeast of Eluanbi and was moving in a west-northwesterly direction at 16 kilometers per hour, packing maximum sustained winds of 64.8 kph, with gusts of up to 90 kph, according to the Central Weather Bureau.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/21
By: Lu Tai-chen and Ko Lin

Taipei, Aug. 21 (CNA) Taitung and Pingtung counties in southern Taiwan will close

schools and offices on Tuesday in anticipation of heavy rain from Tropical Storm Hato, according to the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration.

Meanwhile, ferry services between Donggang and Xiaoliuqiu in Pingtung County will also be suspended on Tuesday, but offices and schools in Kaohsiung will remain open as usual.

As of 9:15 p.m., the storm was 300 kilometers south-southeast of Eluanbi and was moving in a west-northwesterly direction at 16 kilometers per hour, packing maximum sustained winds of 64.8 kph, with gusts of up to 90 kph, according to the Central Weather Bureau.    [FULL  STORY]