■Charity
Jordan to receive donations
The Taiwan government signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Jordan's semi-official Hashemite Charity Organization (HCO) Thursday on cooperation in delivering Taiwan-donated cash and relief goods to Iraqi charities. The agreement was signed by Republic of China. Representative to Jordan Chang Tien-neng (張添能) and HCO Secretary-General Abdul Salam Abbadi.
■ Education
Teachers plan protest
The National Teachers' Association announced yesterday that it will stage a demonstration in Taipei on Teacher's Day, Sept 28. The association said some 10,000 teachers will attend a rally at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and then march to the plaza in front of the Presidential Office to highlight the teachers' opinions. An organizer said the teachers want the government to, to reduce the financial burden on students' parents, to eliminate the chaotic conditions caused by unsuccessful educational reform measures and to fulfill the educational promises given by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) during his 2000 campaign.
■ Diplomacy
Ma invited to design show
The Israeli representative to Taiwan called on Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday to invite him to attend an Israeli contemporary design show that will open at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in December. Ruth Kahanoff, representative of the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, assumed her post this May when Taiwan was in the grips of a SARS outbreak. She said that her husband, a clinical psychologist, had wanted to help the Taiwanese people at the time but did not know through which channels to offer his assistance.
■ Immigration
PFP blasts spouse policy
A legislator of the opposition People First Party (PFP) said Friday that it is "against human nature" for the Chinese spouses of Taiwan residents to have to wait for 11 years to obtain citizenship. Feng Ting-kuo (馮定國) was referring to a revised draft statute governing the relations between the people of Taiwan and China that stipulates spouses born in China have to accumulate 11 years of residency in Taiwan before they are eligible for citizenship. Compared with women from other countries, who only have to wait for four years to get citizenship, Feng said the government's approach is not fair or just and is against the principles of humanity.
■ Labor
Railway union cuts strike
A seven-day walkout planned by the Taiwan Railway Labor Union during the Lunar New Year may be shortened to a half-day strike in order to serve travelers during the busiest travel season of the year, according to the railway union chairman. More than half of the union members voted in a walkout on the Mid-Autumn Festival in favor of launching a seven-day strike on the Lunar New Year. Chang Wen-cheng (張文正), chairman of the union, said that after the walkout experienced on the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is confident that the New Year strike will paralyze the rail service and make the government look bad, despite its latest decision to shorten the strike from seven days to half a day.
Agencies
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