The People First Party (PFP) yesterday publicly criticized the KMT for leaking rumors to the media in hopes of putting pressure on the PFP to cooperate.
"If the KMT still regards the PFP as an ally party, then it should respect the PFP and not carelessly start rumors," the PFP's spokesman Hsieh Kung-ping (
Hsieh's comments were in response to a media report published in the Chinese-language paper the United Daily News. In its report yesterday, the paper quoted an unnamed KMT official as saying that during PFP Chairman James Soong's (
While Soong was away on a month-long trip in the US, rumors circulated that the governing Democratic Progressive Party was hoping to cooperate with the PFP after failing to gain a majority of seats in the legislature in last December's legislative elections.
Soong and the PFP have repeatedly denied that Soong met with any KMT or DPP emissaries when he was in the US.
At yesterday's press conference, Hsieh said that while Soong had been approached by KMT officials about a previously-planned merger between the KMT and the PFP during his first trip to the US, he had not been in contact with any KMT figures during his second trip.
Soong left for the US directly after the legislative elections in early December. He returned to the nation soon after to attend the funeral services of former first lady Faina Chiang (蔣方良), but left immediately again for the US for a second trip that lasted over a month.
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