■ POLITICS
Shyr rebuts nominee report
National Communications Commission (NCC) spokesman Howard Shyr (石世豪) said yesterday he believed the Cabinet could come up with a good roster of nominees for the commission soon. “The list is worth waiting for,” Shyr said in response to a report yesterday by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) that the Cabinet already had a predetermined list of nominees. Current commissioners Liu Tsung-de (劉宗德) and Hsieh Chin-nan (謝進男) are expected to be renominated, while Shyr and two other current commissioners, including chairman Su Yeong-chin (蘇永欽) and Lee Tsu-yuan (李祖原), were not on the list, the report said. Shyr denied having seen the list and also rebutted speculation that Su would move on to become the chief justice of the Council of Grand Justices. Shyr said Su had earlier indicated he wanted to return to National Chengchi University and teach. Shyr said he would also return to National Dong Hwa University’s law school. “I’ll continue to work hard as long as I’m still an NCC commissioner,” he said.
■ DEFENSE
Ma observes war games
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday participated in the first annual Han Kuang series of military exercises since he took office. Ma arrived at the military’s Hengshan Headquarters (衡山指揮所) in Dazhi at around 10am to observe a war game simulating a Chinese military strike against Taiwan in 2009 with the Taiwanese Air Force and Navy both suffering defeats on the first day of hostilities. The Ministry of National Defense said that the full-scale military exercises, which will include the Air Force, the Army, the Navy and the Marines, will be held sometime in September.
■ RECREATION
Cable passengers near 5m
The Maokong Gondola is expected to carry its 5 millionth passenger aloft soon, as more than 4.96 million people had taken the cable service as of Wednesday, the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The gondola’s passenger volume is expected to break the 5 million mark this weekend, and a range of festive activities have been planned for next month, including a lucky draw for prizes such as a 1,600cc sedan valued at NT$600,000 (US$19,750), TRTC said. The celebrations will be held on July 4, the first anniversary of the gondola service that connects two popular tourist attractions in Taipei — the Taipei City Zoo and the Muzha Maokong tea growing area. Other planned activities include an evening concert, the release of 1,300 sets of commemorative gondola tickets and giveaways of 6,000 environmentally friendly bottles to passengers, the TRTC said.
■ POLITICS
Local chiefs may visit PRC
Local government heads will have more opportunities to visit China starting early next month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The council said that local administrators, academicians and experts on cross-strait affairs are still discussing the issue on relaxing restrictions on visits by city and county heads to China, but the Cabinet is expected to give the green light next Thursday — a day before the launch of weekend direct cross-strait charter flights. The relaxation would allow local government chiefs to visit China as long as their trips are related to city or county affairs and bilateral exchanges. The issue came under the media spotlight after the MAC rejected an application by Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) to travel aboard the first weekend direct cross-strait charter flight from Taichung to China.
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