■ Athletics
Taiwan nabs gold, bronze
Two university students won Taiwan its first medals -- a gold and a bronze -- yesterday in the 2005 World University Games, also known as the Universiade, in Izmir, Turkey. Huang Yi-hsue (黃怡學), 23, a graduate student at the National College of Physical Education and Sports, won the gold medal in the men's vault. It was the first medal win for Taiwan at this year's games, and the first ever Universiade gold medal for a Taiwanese. Lin Hsiang-wei (林祥威), 20, from National Taiwan Normal University, took the bronze in the men's pommel horse.
■ Diplomacy
AIT staff to visit Taichung
Representatives of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) will be in Taichung on Aug. 24 to provide consular services to US citizens in the area. Americans wishing to file applications for passports or to add pages to their passports, and all persons requiring the services of a notary public for US purposes, can go to the American Corner located in the National Taichung Library at 291-3 Jingwu Rd, Taichung, from 9am to 11am. Further information can be obtained by contacting AIT's Taipei office at (02) 2162-2000, ext. 2306. More information about the fees for different services can be found on AIT's Web site (www.ait.org.tw/en/uscitizens/).
■ Politics
New Party trio joins KMT
Three New Party legislators -- Fei Hung-tai (費鴻泰), Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) and Joanna Lei (雷倩) -- joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday in a step toward a merger of the two parties ahead of the 2008 presidential elections. "Hopefully the three outstanding legislators can give the KMT a new lease on life in reforms," New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) said. The New Party plans to integrate with the KMT in order to strengthen the pan-blue camp's chances in the 2008 elections. Yok, however, would not say when the merger would take place.
■ Diplomacy
Australia to maintain ban
The Australian government has rejected President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) recent request to lift its 33-year ban on visits by Taiwanese leaders, according to a report in the Australian newspaper yesterday. "We will just stick with the policy Australia has had since 1972," the paper quoted Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as saying. As for Chen's call for Australia's support in Taiwan's bid to gain admittance to the APEC leaders' summit to be held in South Korea in November, Downer said only that it was a "matter for the Koreans," as the summit's hosts. Green Party Senator Bob Brown said that keeping leaders of "this nearby democracy" from visiting Australia "would be an affront to Australia's own democratic values."
■ Food
Hsieh urges scallion boycott
Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday urged the public to go on strike against the high price of green onions. "If everyone stops eating green onions for three days, I believe that the price will drop to NT$10 per kilogram," he said. Hsieh said that consumers must stay united to fight against unreasonably high prices. "We will not die if we do not eat green onions, will we?" he said. Taiwan's production of green onions has been seriously impacted since three typhoons recently hit the country. The price of green onions peaked at NT$400 per kilogram two weeks ago, but the average market price remains around NT$280 per kilogram.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
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