■ Aid given to Israeli group
Taiwan Representative to Israel Ting Gan-cheng (丁干城) on Friday donated US$10,000 to Sparrow, an Israeli environmental group. Ting said that although Taiwan was excluded from international environmental organizations, the nation had since 1996 sponsored 110 international nature conservation organizations. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) proposed a world environmental organization earlier this year with the aim of protecting the environment, Ting said. He said Taiwan also needed friends around the world to help it take part in the international efforts to help the environment and that he was happy to donate the money to Sparrow on behalf of the government. Sparrow was founded in 2005 and its members are mostly pilots who are concerned about the environment. They volunteer to fly over Israeli nature conservation parks to monitor poaching, illegal dumping of waste and the destruction of crucial sea turtle habitat.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Penghu gets help on waste
The Kaohsiung City Government has agreed to help the Penghu County Government deal with its garbage problem by handling as much as 60 tonnes of its garbage. Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) offered the help during a visit by Penghu County Commissioner Wang Chien-fa (王乾發) on Friday. Wang told Chen that landfill sites in Penghu were filled to capacity. The central government's refusal to allow Penghu County to build an incinerator for fear it might pollute the island chain's environment means that the county is unable to deal with its waste problem on its own. Chen said the Kaohsiung City Government was willing to help Penghu preserve its status as an unspoilt part of Taiwan. The garbage will be transported from Penghu by ship and burned in Kaohsiung's incinerator, at a cost of NT$730 per tonne.
■ POLITICS
Chen denies Chang threat
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday denied a report in the Chinese-language United Daily News claiming that Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) had threatened to resign should the Cabinet not be allowed to adjust gasoline prices in accordance with the floating pricing mechanism. The Cabinet's insistence on increasing oil prices in accordance with the mechanism has attracted the concern of Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), who is in favor of government intervention on oil prices. Cabinet Secretary-General Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) said yesterday that the news report was "groundless."
■ POLITICS
Events mark anniversary
The Straits Exchange Foundation will organize a series of activities to mark the 20th anniversary of cross-strait exchanges. The activities include the screening of a documentary chronicling the 20-year history of cross-strait exchanges -- produced through a collaboration between the foundation and the Public Television Service -- said Michael You (游盈隆), secretary-general and vice chairman of the foundation. The foundation will also hold a two-day symposium at the Grand Hotel in Taipei, starting on Dec. 7, and later publish the papers and symposium minutes, You said. The foundation hopes to create an opportunity to learn and exchange ideas concerning its policies on cross-strait exchanges, he said.
■ Park to stage WWII service
This year's annual Remembrance Day service in honor of those who fought and died in World War II will be held on Nov. 18 at the POW Memorial Park on the site of the former Kinkaseki POW Camp in Jinguashih (金瓜石), Taipei County. The event, jointly organized by the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society and the Canadian Trade Office, will also honor the more than 4,300 Allied POWs who were held in 15 forced labor camps around Taiwan. A POW banquet will also be held on the evening of Nov. 17 at the Imperial Hotel on Linsen N Road at a cost of NT$1,000 per person. The Canadian Society is laying on buses for those interested in attending the Sunday service as there is no parking for private vehicles at the memorial site. Reservations for both the banquet and bus can be made by calling Crystal Hsu at the Canadian Trade Office on (02) 2544-3461. More details can be found by visiting www.powtaiwan.org.
■ sport
Kaohsiung ready for games
Kaohsiung meets the requirements to host the 2009 World Games and the city should have no problem staging the games, the head of the International World Games Association (IWGA) said yesterday. IWGA Chairman Ron Froehlich made the remarks after meeting Chi Cheng (紀政), an Olympic medalist who serves as the executive officer of the Kaohsiung Organizing Committee for the World Games. Froehlich confirmed that China lodged a protest with the International Olympic Games (IOC) against Kaohsiung's hosting the World Games, but he said that Chinese Taipei is an IOC member and that it meets the requirements for hosting the games. He expressed the hope that Kaohsiung will make every effort to make the games a success.
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