■ EDUCATION
Rights program planned
Soochow University will soon launch a graduate program in human rights, a university spokesman said yesterday, adding that the program would focus on human rights theory and practice and include cross-disciplinary approaches and research. The university has long had a strength in human rights research, the spokesman said, noting that it established its human rights research center in 2000 and launched an undergraduate program on the subject in 2004. The university has more than 100 students in its undergraduate human rights program. Online registration for the graduate program opens on Feb. 13 and an enrollment exam will be held on April 14. Prospective students are welcome to attend an information session on the graduate program on Jan. 19.
■ SOCIETY
Survey looks at Web habits
Taiwanese men and women differ in terms of their surfing habits, a survey released on Monday showed. The survey, conducted by MSN, polled Taiwanese Web users between the ages of 18 and 45 and found that women spend more time browsing a given Web site, while men visit a single site for a shorter period of time before moving on. The survey also reported differences in the Web surfing habits of married and single Internet users with white-collar jobs. Married Web users rarely spent time surfing the Internet after work. By contrast, singles -- as well as students -- spend a significant amount of time online in the evenings, visiting blog portals, photo-sharing sites and other Web pages, MSN said.
■ POLITICS
Hsieh pans Ma over suit
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday criticized his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) counterpart Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for suing the prosecutors who had charged him with graft in February. Hsieh called on Ma to face judicial scrutiny with courage and morality. Ma's lawsuit showed that he is trying to intimidate prosecutors from looking further into the matter, Hsieh said. Ma was indicted on Feb. 13 on charges of mishandling funds and embezzling NT$11.17 million (US$344,000) from his special allowance fund during his two terms as Taipei mayor. He was acquitted by the Taipei District Court on Aug. 1. The prosecution appealed the decision to the Taiwan High Court on Aug. 27 and the Taiwan High Court last month upheld the Taipei District Court's ruling.
■ HEALTH
Taichung warns on H5N1
Taichung City issued a warning yesterday against traveling to countries and areas affected by bird-flu ahead of the approaching Lunar New Year holiday. The city government urged the public to take precautions against the disease before traveling to bird-flu affected countries and areas, including Indonesia, China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Poland, Cambodia, Benin, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Djibouti, Iraq, and Turkey. As an industrial area, Taichung employs many migrant workers and has a large number of spouses from Southeast Asia -- especially Vietnam. The week-long Lunar New Year holiday provides them a chance to travel to their home country. Taichung municipal authorities said that Indonesia recently reported two new cases of H5N1 influenza, bringing its total to 115, including 93 deaths, citing information released by the WHO. Also, in China's Jiangsu Province, two new cases involving a father and a son were reported recently. China has so far recorded a total of 27 cases of H5N1, with 17 deaths.
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