■ Arts
Troupe invited to El Salvador
The visiting president of El Salvador, Francisco Flores, invited Taiwan's Cloud Gate Dance Theatre to perform in San Salvador. Flores extended the invitation in person to Lin Huai-min (林懷民), founder of the world-renowned contemporary dance troupe, after attending the group's performance at the National Theater in Taipei yesterday. Flores arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday to take part in the fourth summit of heads of state from Taiwan, Central American nations and the Dominican Republic held the following day. He conducted a fact-finding tour of eastern Taiwan following the summit and returned to Taipei yesterday afternoon. Flores is scheduled to sign a joint communique with his Taiwanese counterpart, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), before departing Taiwan today. Delegations from eight Central American and Caribbean countries were in Taipei last week for a gathhering of Taiwan's diplomatic allies.
■ Overseas affairs
OCAC official talks tough
Liao Sheng-hsiung (廖勝雄), deputy minister of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission (OCAC) of the Executive Yuan, on Saturday urged overseas Chinese to strengthen their solidarity in order to prevent communist China from sowing seeds of discord in their communities. Liao, who is in San Jose to attend an annual conference of the Taiwanese Amity Association in the US, said at the meeting that Taiwan's government, regardless of which political party is running the country, treats all overseas Chinese communities equally and fairly. He said the OCAC is doing its best to serve overseas Chinese communities around the world. Currently, the OCAC has 17 cultural centers to serve overseas Chinese. Three more are being set up in Washington, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Vancouver, Canada.
■ Business
Intel chief visits Taiwan
Craig Barrett, the chief executive officer of Intel, arrived in Taiwan yesterday evening for a brief visit. He is expected to announce the company's plan to set up a research and development center in Taiwan during a news conference today. Barrett will meet local business leaders and government officials during his whirlwind visit. He is set to depart Taiwan today.
■ Education
President honors `little suns'
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday presented the "Presidential Education Award" to 68 students from elementary, junior high and senior high schools around Taiwan at the Tainan Municipal Cultural Center in recognition of their strength and perseverance in the face of many difficulties in their surroundings. Calling all of them Taiwan's "little suns," Chen said he is very happy to have the opportunity to encourage in person those diligent children who always strive for success despite facing hardship. He also vowed that the award ceremony will be presented annually in cooperation with local authorities and the private sector. This year's ceremony was the third of its kind. The president also urged the public to be brave enough to dream and to believe that "the dream will come true through hard work." This is exactly the meaning and significance of the Presidential Education Award, he said.
■ Society
Woman had sex with sons
A mother stunned social workers in Kaohsiung City recently by telling them that she had had sex with her two mentally handicapped sons to prevent them from possibly attacking others. The mother, in her fifties, told psychiatrists at the Kaohsiung Municipal Kaihsuan Hospital that after the two sons became teenagers, their emotional states started becoming unstable. Four years ago when her eldest son was 16, she had sex with him for the first time out of fear that his unsatisfied sexual desires could drive him to attack others. Then, her second son requested to have sex with his mother after seeing what happened between her and his older brother. The woman sought the psychiatrist's help after her second son began to injure himself because his mother started turning down his requests for sex.
■ National defense
Singapore seeks warning
Singapore has asked China for two weeks' warning of any invasion of Taiwan so that it can pull out its own soldiers being trained here, it was reported yesterday. Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew made the request amid concern about the delicate relationship between China and Taiwan, a Chinese-language newspaper said in a report from Washington. The paper said Singapore usually had up to 6,000 soldiers -- comprising infantry, artillery, tanks and air force units -- being trained in Taiwan under a military cooperation agreement. It said the evacuation of Singaporean troops would require at least two weeks. Singaporean diplomats in the US would not confirm the report, saying only that "countries have their own contingency plans," the paper said.
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