■ Politics
Speculation over Lien
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday said that it is inappropriate to discuss whether Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) should resign and who should take over the party's leadership. "The most pressing issue on hand now for the party is the year-end legislative election," said Wang, one of the KMT's vice chairmen who is largely regarded by pan-blue supporters as the key representative of the party's pro-localization faction. Wang's remark was in response to a mounting buzz that members of the faction had voiced support for Wang as the party's future chairman and proposed that he and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) run on a joint ticket in the 2008 presidential election.
■ Polls
Tang appears popular
Minister of National Defense Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明) was the most popular Cabinet member, even though he has asked to resign because of health problems, a newspaper poll showed yesterday. The survey by the China Times reported that 61 percent of those polled were satisfied with Tang. Only 8 percent were dissatisfied with him and the rest had no opinion or had never heard of him, the poll said. Tang tried to resign after the March 20 presidential poll, citing eye problems, but the government persuaded him to stay, as it grapples with a dispute over results that saw President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) narrowly win re-election. The newspaper said the telephone poll, conducted from April 1 to April 3, involved 1,233 successful responses and had a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
■ Crime
Authorities seize ketamine
Police said yesterday they seized more than 27kg of liquid ketamine and arrested two suspects at Kaohsiung International Airport a day earlier for smuggling the illegal drug in liquor bottles. Police said they were tipped off in January that a woman drug trafficker surnamed Fu was planning to smuggling ketamine after she saw how popular it was in pubs and that the ketamine in China was cheap and only a controlled substance. After three months, police were able to find Fu's connection and trace the source of the ketamine from the manufacturer in China. Police learned that Fu, together with three other women and an eight-year-old, left for Zhuhai in Guangdong Province via Macau on March 31 and were scheduled to return last Sunday. Fu and another suspect surnamed Lee arrived at Kaohsiung's Hsiaokang International Airport Sunday afternoon and were found to have 96 bottles of Chinese liquor in which the ketamine was hidden.
■ Languages
Russians to hold contest
Russia's representative office in Taiwan will host a Russian language proficiency contest later this month in a bid to forge mutual understanding and boost exchanges, a spokesman for the mission said yesterday. George Zinoviev, the first deputy representative of the Moscow-Taipei Economic and Cultural Coordination Commission, said the mission is slated to host the competition April 22 and sponsor relevant activities in cooperation with National Chengchi University, Tamkang University and Chinese Culture University. Zinoviev expressed his hope that the people of Taiwan will gain a better understanding of Russia's culture and language through the series of activities to lay a foundation for more frequent and closer bilateral ties.
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