The Legislature's Education and Culture Committee yesterday gave its go-ahead to the 2003 budget for the Cabinet-level Council for Cultural Affairs -- after some deep cuts -- saying the council has been ineffective in executing its duty.
After much cross-party negotiation, lawmakers on the committee decided to take NT$87 million from the council's projected spending of NT$5.5 billion, in addition to freezing miscellaneous outlays.
The bulk of the cuts, NT$70 million, was intended to promote folk activities on the township level.
Legislators had threatened to cut between NT$100 million and NT$200 million from the fund on grounds that the council had failed to explain clearly what the money was for.
Earlier, KMT lawmaker Lin Yi-shih (林益世) accused the council of seeking to help DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) win votes with the funds.
He noted that both Lee and President Chen Shui-bian (
PFP lawmaker Diane Lee (
TSU Legislator Chen Cheng-lung (
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
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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