■ Diplomacy
Paraguay firm on ties
Paraguay will not sever its diplomatic ties with Taiwan for the sake of an agreement between the South American trade bloc Mercosur, of which it is a member, and China, a top foreign ministry official said on Wednesday. Mercosur is the Southern Common Market that groups Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, with Chile and Bolivia as associate members. The group is negotiating is a free-trade agreement with China. "The government [of Paraguay] maintains that it can establish trade and economic ties with any country," said Jose Martinez Lezcano, the deputy foreign minister for economic affairs and integration. "After the agreement is signed, we are not obligated to trade [with China]" or to establish diplomatic ties with the country, he said. Paraguay has had diplomatic relations with Taiwan since 1957. It is the only South American nation that maintains ties with Taipei.
■ Election
Observers on their way
Fifteen groups from Hong Kong and Macau will start to arrive in Taiwan in mid-February to observe the presidential election scheduled for March 20, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The council's vice-chairman, Huang Chieh-cheng (黃介正), made the announcement following an MAC meeting about political reform in Hong Kong and relations between Taiwan and Hong Kong. He said that the observers from Hong Kong and Macau, which will include journalists, lawmakers, scholars and election experts, will come to Taiwan at the invitation of local private groups and think tanks. This is five more groups than in the 2000 presidential election.
■ Society
Contest links families, heat
The Taiwan Fund for Families and Children (CCF) and Taiwan Sakura Corp are sponsoring a "Warming Up Homes" contest which will help raise money for the fund. People can participate by sending in a suggestion on how to improve relations among family members. Those interested can fax in their suggestions to (02-23688833 UFO Radiom) or submit them online (value.yam.com/2004/sakura). Submissions must include the contestant's name, age, ID-card number, contact number and suggestion. The company will donate NT$10 for every ID-card number registered to the fund. The suggestions will then be listed for public voting and the submission with highest number of vote will win a Sakura stove and water-heater.
■ Earthquakes
Southern Taiwan jolted
Two moderate earthquakes jolted southern Taiwan on Wednesday, seismologists said, but there were no reports of damage or casualties. The first earthquake, measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale, hit at 3:13am with an epicenter 19.8km northwest of Peinan in Taitung County, the Central Weather Bureau said. It originated 10km underground. A second earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 followed at 3:34am, with an epicenter 19.9km southwest of Litao in Taitung County, 4.8km under the ground. A powerful quake with a magnitude of 6.6 shook Taiwan on Dec. 10 last year but left only minor damage and injuries in some southern cities. The island suffered its worst quake in a century when one measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck central Taiwan on Sept. 21, 1999, leaving 2,400 people dead.
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