■ SOCIETY
Lu's bodyguard dismissed
One of Vice President Annette Lu's (呂秀蓮) bodyguards is to be discharged after he allegedly took photographs of a female secretary at the Presidential Office while she was in the bathroom, the Presidential Office said yesterday. Presidential Office Spokesman David Lee (李南陽) said the office dealt with the matter as soon as it learned of the incident. "Our position is clear: The person in question must receive the harshest punishment possible," Lee said. The bodyguard in question has received a major demerit and been sent back to the National Security Bureau, Lee said, adding that the person would receive an early discharge by the end of the month. Lee made the remarks after a report in the Chinese-language Next magazine.
■ CULTURE
Wanted: best Taipei shops
Ahead of the Lunar New Year, the Taipei City Government has invited the public to recommend their favorite shops for traditional foods and products for a shopping Web site. The city's Department of Economic Development said the annual "Big Street New Year Shopping Festival" would include five streets well-known for traditional products during the holiday season: Dihua Street (迪化街), Ningxia Street (寧夏街), Huayin Street (華陰街), Taipei Underground Street and the shops directly north of Taipei Main Station. The department will also establish a "2008 Taipei New Year supplies Web site" this year to place shopping orders online. It invited the public to recommend the best shops for traditional products by Jan. 5 online at www.tcooc.taipei.gov.tw/buy/.
■ POLITICS
Changes at Democracy Hall
Ministry of Education Secretary-General Chuang Kuo-jung (莊國榮) announced yesterday that the main hall of the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall would be reopened next Tuesday following some changes. "The main hall with a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) will be reopened on Jan. 1," Chuang told a press conference at the ministry. "While the statue will remain, a rigid frame will be constructed around the statue where photos, names and the stories of victims of political repression will be displayed." Chuang said the move was to show historical facts and to "dispel the myth behind Chiang Kai-shek." The exact time of the reopening would be announced at a later date, he said.
■ politics
Hsieh backs flight expansion
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday said that if elected, he would expand cross-strait charter flights and allow round-trip, multiple destination flight services. Hsieh also pledged to lower entertainment taxes, except for golf, and to review the necessity of similar forms of taxation. Visa fees should also be relaxed, he said, adding that there should not be any problem allowing more Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan. He said that cross-strait charter flights were implemented during his term as premier, but was unilaterally suspended by Beijing. He thought it was a good idea to connect cross-strait flight services with tourism, adding that round-trip, multiple-destination flight services would be a good way to skirt the controversial issue of international or domestic routes.
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