■ LEISURE
Presidential Office opens
The public is invited to take part in a day of fun and food in front of the Presidential Office on Sunday. From 8am to 4pm, a wide range of activities inside and outside the building are aimed at welcoming the public to a Presidential Office open house. The building will only be open to public visits four times this year, with this Sunday being the third. The open-house activities have been jointly organized by the Council for Cultural Affairs, Council of Agriculture, Sports Affairs Council and National Museum of Taiwanese Literature. The Sports Affairs Council has also organized a 1,000km round-the-island bicycle tour. Visitors to the Presidential Office must bring their ID or passport.
■ FOREIGN AFFAIRS
US visa waiver contested
US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said on Wednesday that a bill providing for the expansion of a US visa waiver program would mainly benefit US allies in Europe, adding that he had not heard of Taiwan being included in the list. Responding to Casey's comments, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman David Wang (王建業) said yesterday that it did not mean Taiwan was excluded from the act, as the US administration had not fleshed out the details or which countries would benefit from the visa-free program. While the US has the right to determine which countries should benefit, Wang pointed out that Taiwan meets the conditions set forth in the visa-waiver program, including a low overstay rate, low visa rejection rate and cooperation with the US on counterterrorism.
■ EDUCATION
Zoo hosts bear exhibit
The Taipei Zoo is holding a special exhibition about the need to protect bears. The exhibition, titled "Bear in Mind," opened on Wednesday in the zoo's Education Center and will run until the end of next month. It features life-size pictures of bears and information about their characteristics, living habits and how their habitats are being threatened. There are also hands-on workshops that allow visitors to play various bear-themed games. The eight species in the ursidae family are distributed from the Arctic coasts to tropical jungles. The zoo has three of the species among its inhabitants: brown bears, sun bears and Asian black bears, plus a subspecies of the Asian black bear -- the Formosan black bear.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Changhua tries oil recycling
The Changhua County Government will launch a waste cooking oil recycling program beginning next month on a trial basis as part of efforts to improve environmental protection, a county official said yesterday. The program will involve collecting waste edible oil from households, schools and government organizations, the county's Environmental Protection Bureau official said, adding that if successful, the program would be officially implemented. Noting that waste cooking oil produced by households, schools and public agencies accounts for some 20 percent to 28 percent of the national total, the official said that dumping it directly into rivers or drains causes serious contamination. The program is part of the Environmental Protection Administration's plan to reduce environmental pollution and increase raw material supply for the production of biodiesel and other products such as soap and feed additives.
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