■ Defense
VSE wins Kidd contract
The US-based VSE Corp has won a US Navy contract worth US$8.1 million to overhaul four Kidd-class destroyers destined for Taiwan, Jane's Defence Weekly reported. The second-hand destroyers are part of the decade's most comprehensive arms package offered to Taipei by US President George W. Bush in April last year. The first Kidd-class destroyers could enter service by 2005, the navy estimates, and are a prelude to the nation's acquisition of the even more advanced Aegis air-defense system sometime in the next 10 years, Jane's reported. VSE will undertake logistical support, training and other technical responsibilities, Jane's said in an article published Wednesday.
■ Industry
Lu urges `Taiwanizing' food
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) encouraged food manufacturers yesterday to create their own brand names in order to promote their products in the inter-national market. Address-ing the 2003 Formosan Golden Food Awards ceremony in Kaohsiung, Lu said the country is famous for a great variety of delicious foods. To promote their products internationally, manufac-turers should not only try to improve the quality of their products, but also to create their own brands, she said. The manufacturers should be ambitious and set themselves the goal of "Taiwanizing" the stomachs of all people around the world, she said. The awards were organized by the Kaohsiung-based Taiwan News. Also attending the ceremony were Kaohsiung Vice Mayor Lin Yung-chien (林永堅) and Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chu An-hsiung (朱安雄).
■ Politics
Lu urges party examination
The DPP should thoroughly examine its election stra-tegies and seek improve-ments, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said yesterday in the wake of the DPP's setback in the Hualien County commissioner by-election. DPP candidate Yu Ying-lung (游盈隆) lost to KMT-PFP candidate Hsieh Shen-san (謝深山). This was the third time that Yu has failed to win the job. Yu said he hopes next year's presi-dential election campaign will focus on public policies, saying the election must not become another ideological battlefield. Chan Chung-yuan (詹中原), a professor at National Chengchi Univer-sity, said that while drafting campaign strategies for
the presidential election, parties can take reference from the Hualien by-election in terms of grassroots support. He pointed out
that the population in Hualien -- - 48 percent Minnan, 21 percent Hakka, 18 percent mainlander and 13 percent indigenous -- is comparable to that of the nation's overall population composition.
■ Academics
Physics olympiad opens
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) opened the 34th International Physics Olympiad in Taipei yesterday. There are 239 high-school students from 54 countries participating in the contest, which runs through next Saturday. During the weeklong contest, partici-pants will work on both written and laboratory tests and will win awards based on the total points garnered by each country's team. The contest was organized by the National Taiwan Normal University with assistance from the Ministry of Education. China is boycotting the event because it is opposed to the games being held in Taiwan.
The international Olympiad is known as the Olympic games for physics.
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
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
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