The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) announced yesterday that the pan-blue alliance would stop boycotting Premier Frank Hsieh's (
"The ball is in the DPP's court now," said Tseng Yung-chuan (
Tseng said that they hope that the DPP would now take steps towards easing the deadlock between itself and the opposition parties.
According to Tseng, the KMT has already established a fourteen person decision-making commit-tee, and meetings would be held starting today to discuss strategies to be used against the DPP at the Executive Yuan and Legislative Yuan meetings this week.
The KMT and DPP are also meeting today to discuss the details of Premier Hsieh's report.
Tseng said that all the pan-blue alliance was requesting was the five commissions of inquiry, but the DPP had proposed three other additional commissions, including a commission on corruption, a commission on the investigation of unused property and a commission on pollution, indicating that they were not sincere in wanting to resolve the problems between the two parties.
The pan-blue camp proposed the establishment of the five commissions because they lack executive power as the opposition, but the governing party can hold investigations and inquiries at any time it wishes, Tseng said.
Tseng said that the KMT was willing to apologize to Hsieh and hoped that the DPP would respond sincerely.
People First Party (PFP) caucus whip Sun Ta-chien (
DPP Legislator Tang Huo-shen (
Tang continued that although the PFP has the right to scrutinize the bill, it cannot keep blocking it just for the sake of opposing the governing party. The bill should at least have the chance to be reviewed by the legislature's National Defense Committee, he said.
According to Sun, the PFP is not against the arms purchase, but against what it deems a waste of money. The PFP will keep opposing the bill regardless of what President Chen had said, he said.
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