■ Politics
Embassy planned in Nauru
The Republic of China's (ROC) embassy in Nauru is expected to be running by the end of the month, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday. The president made the remark while receiving Nauruan parliamentary speaker Valdon Dowiyogo at the Presidential Office yesterday morning. Taiwan and Nauru first established diplomatic relations in 1980. After Nauru switched its allegiance to China in July 2002, it re-established diplomatic relations with Taiwan in May 2005. Chen, who visited the Micronesian South Pacific island nation in September last year, was the first Taiwanese president to visit Nauru, which became independent in 1968.
■ Defense
Recruit standards change
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday made public the latest standards for the physical condition of recruits. Reporters immediately questioned whether the new standards were too lax. Recruits will be required to run 3km in 19 minutes. After six months of military service, the time limit will be 15 minutes. "I have to say that this standard for physical training is designed to help recruits gradually get used to tough military training," said Rear Admiral Wu Chi-fang (吳季方), spokesman for the ministry. "Every country in the world does the same thing to train their recruits. It will not be a problem."
■ Society
Weather kills mountaineer
The leader of a trio of mountaineers attempting to scale Mount Nanhu (南湖大山) and the Central Range Point has died after temperatures in the area suddenly dropped, said fire brigade officials who responded to an emergency call for help yesterday. The officials said they received emergency calls saying that the team's leader, Lai Shan-chieh (賴杉杰), had died while two companions -- Ting Ching-chun (丁清俊) and Chou Mei-chu (周美珠) -- were suffering from hypothermia. Ting and Chou are temporarily quartered at a tourist lodge in Nanhu while awaiting medical assistance. A seven-member rescue team has set off from the brigade's detachment near Lishan (梨山), but it will take them three to four days to reach the mountain lodge, officials said. The brigade requested a helicopter for the rescue mission, but bad weather conditions barred the option.
■ Justice
Task force members affirmed
Members of the country's top investigation task force have been approved by the Prosecutors' Personnel Review Committee under the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), an official of the Supreme Prosecutor's Office said yesterday. The 10 prosecutors were selected by State Public Prosecutor-General Chen Tsung-ming (陳聰明) and submitted to the ministry for approval earlier yesterday. Chen Yun-nan (陳雲南), who is currently an MOJ counselor, will be the task force head. The other nine members include another MOJ counselor and eight prosecutors from different high court and district prosecutors' offices. The spokesman said they would work directly under the leadership of the state public prosecutor-general and deal with crimes committed by top government officials or their relatives. The task force will start operating in April after the 10 members are officially appointed by the MOJ, the spokesman said.
■ Health
Taiwanese can't sleep
Over one-quarter of Taiwanese suffer from problems related to sleeping, including insomnia, with more women than men experiencing problems, a study published yesterday showed. The Taiwan Society of Sleep Medicine's survey of 4,011 people over 15 years of age found that 25.5 percent of respondents, or 4.8 million, had sleep-related problems. Increasing numbers of Taiwanese are troubled by a lack of sleep, it showed, with 24.8 percent reporting some manner of sleep disorder and 11.5 percent suffering chronic insomnia. The figures indicated that more than one in every 10 people regularly had serious difficulties sleeping. Thirty percent of women reported troubles falling asleep. More than half of women aged 50 to 59 reported menopause-related sleep problems, the survey found. Hsu Shih-chieh (許世杰) of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou (林口) said that people who had trouble sleeping for more than one month might be suffering from chronic insomnia and should seek assistance from a physician.
■ Politics
Ma vows to ease restriction
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said he would ease a key restriction on investment in China if elected president next year. "Generally speaking, the 40 percent ceiling has to go," Ma said of a rule subjecting Taiwanese companies' investment in China to that share of their net worth. Ma said there would be some exceptions to this liberalization. Speaking at a conference in Taipei organized by Merrill Lynch & Co, he said limits on some technology investments would need to be maintained for national security reasons, although they would be eased.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
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
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