The Taipei City Police Department gave a group of anti-corruption campaign advocates permission to hold rallies on Ketagalan Boulevard from next Sunday through Sept. 11 and in a public square at Taipei Main Station on Sept. 15, a department spokesman said yesterday.
The area around the Presidential Office, which houses many key government institutions, will be closed for public activities from Sept. 12 to Oct. 12, while preparations are being made for National Day on Oct. 10, said Huang Ching-fu (黃清福), chief of the department's social order maintenance division.
The permission for the anti-corruption campaign, which launched a nationwide protest campaign in September last year to depose President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), drew criticism from Taipei City Councilor Hung Chien-yi (洪健益) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who denounced the police for "disregarding citizens' rights," as the same group crippled downtown traffic with their massive parades and rallies last year.
Huang said there was no reason for the police department to prohibit public rallies as people already have the constitutional right to organize public assemblies.
The anti-corruption campaign was initiated by former DPP chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德), who launched sit-in on Sept. 9 last year to press Chen to step down over corruption and embezzlement allegations implicating his wife, son-in-law and senior aides.
Last month, prosecutors indicted Shih and 15 others for violating the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法) for unregistered protests during last year's National Day.
The indictment said anti-Chen campaign organizers had failed to apply for a permit from Taipei City Police to hold a parade or rally on Oct. 10 last year.
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