■ Crime
Man nabbed for smuggling
A Taiwanese man faces charges in Cambodia of attempting to smuggle 2.2kg of heroin out of the Phnom Penh airport, Cambodian officials said yesterday. Sho Shi-hie, 25, faces 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted. Police allege he was caught trying to board a flight to Taipei with the drugs concealed on his body. He is the latest in a spate of Taiwanese arrested for trying to smuggle heroin or opium from Cambodia to Taiwan, sparking speculation that a larger ring may be operating between the two countries, police sources said. Court officials said Sho admitted having purchased the heroin in Phnom Penh. Under Cambodian law, a defendant can be detained up to six months before trial while a criminal case is investigated.
■ Diplomacy
Petition drive launched
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles launched an online campaign on Monday to promote the nation's bid to join the World Health Organization (WHO). According to office staffers, a petition entitled "Say Yes to Taiwan's Bid to WHO" was posted on Monday on the online petitions Web site, gopetition.com, and people are urged to visit the site to sign in support. The site already has 28 signatures. The petition on the site with the most signatures is called, "Save Spongebob Squarepants." The petition calls for public support for Taiwan's bid to participate as an observer in the World Health Assembly scheduled to start May 16, noting that the WHO is responsible for ensuring that the people of Taiwan are provided sufficient health information.
■ Elections
CEC announces list
The Central Election Commission (CEC) announced yesterday the candidate list of various political parties and groups participating in the May 14 National Assembly elections. CEC officials also said that campaigning will formally kick off today and run through election day eve. A televised platform presentation of 12 political parties and groups participating in the National Assembly election will also be held on Saturday. The 300 seats for the ad hoc National Assembly will be allotted to the various parties and groups based on the proportion of votes they each garner in the upcoming election. The mission of the National Assembly will be to consider a constitutional amendment package adopted by the Legislative Yuan last August. Items in the package include reducing the number of legislative seats from the present 225 to 113 and adopting a "single seat, two votes" legislative electoral system starting with the seventh legislature to be elected in 2007.
■ Society
Charity raises funds
The Taipei-based Modern Women's Foundation began a charity sale of Mother's Day cards yesterday to raise funds for efforts to help domestic violence-suffering mothers. According to the foundation's statistics, 92.7 percent of the women who are victims of marital violence are also mothers, and on average, each family shadowed by marital violence raises 1.8 children. Taking Ministry of the Interior statistics regarding domestic violence as a standard, around 29,000 women in Taiwan face the threat of marital violence each year. It is estimated that the number of family violence-suffering mothers hits about 26,803 a year.
■ Diplomacy
Envoy kept from Lien
Taiwan's representative to Hong Kong was again refused permission to receive Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) during his transit stop at the territory's airport yesterday afternoon. Pao Cheng-kang (鮑正鋼), the managing director of the Chung Hwa Travel Service, was barred from meeting with Lien when he passed through Hong Kong en route to China on April 26. Hong Kong authorities said at the time that the Chung Hwa Travel Service was a non-governmental organization and therefore it was not necessary for Pao to receive Lien. The Mainland Affairs Council expressed regret yesterday for the latest incident and said that it hoped the territory's government would be able to approach ties with Taiwan in a practical and rational manner in the future.
■ Education
Cooperation pact inked
Taiwan and Canada signed a letter of intent on academic cooperation on Monday after representatives held a one-day conference in Taipei. Fourteen university presidents and other representatives from Canada, and 22 presidents and representatives from Taiwan took part in the 8th Canada-Taiwan Conference on Higher Education, which was held at National Taiwan University on Monday. Paul Perron, the principal of University College of the University of Toronto, and National Taiwan University president Chen Wei-chao signed the letter of intent on Canada-Taiwan Academic Cooperation. The new agreement is aimed at enhancing faculty and publications exchanges between the two countries, cooperation in research and hosting conferences as well as facilitating inter-country dual degrees.
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