■SOCIETY
Panda-viewing to be limited
Giant pandas Tuan Tuan (團團) and Yuan Yuan (圓圓) may arrive in Taipei Zoo as early as November via a cross-strait direct flight, and visitors will be required to take a number to see them. Zoo director Jason Yeh (葉傑生) yesterday said the Taipei City Government has formed a special team to handle the two pandas, and will seek to arrange for them to take a direct flight from Chengdu (成都), China, to Taipei. Yeh said the zoo expects the pandas to attract 6 million visitors each year. The zoo will ask visitors to draw number slips to save them from waiting in line, and each visitor may be given only three to five minutes in the Panda Hall because of the large number of expected visitors, he said.
■SOCIETY
‘Hung’ abuse ends in divorce
Banciao (板橋) District Court on Tuesday granted a woman a divorce on the grounds that her husband had used dirty and insulting language to humiliate her over a period of many years, with one of his favorite jibes being to compare his wife to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱). The court said the woman, who runs a private school with her husband, wrote down the “Hung Hsiu-chu” remark and asked her husband to sign it. She then used the signed insult as evidence to prove the verbal abuse. In the ruling, the court said it had granted the divorce to save the woman from further abuse. Asked about the story, Hung said she is actually a sweet and gentle woman, and not as tough as some people think. She added that she would like to meet the couple concerned and after spending some time with her, the man would realize that having a wife like her would lead to a happy family life.
■POLITICS
Tsai arrives in New York
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) arrived in New York on Tuesday on the first leg of a two-week US trip. “The prime aim of this visit is to exchange views with US experts and expatriates on a wide range of issues, including Taiwan’s political situation,” Tsai told reporters upon her arrival at Kennedy Airport. “I will be open and frank in response to all questions,” Tsai said. “Washington should be very aware of my views.” Tsai was to hold a closed-door meeting yesterday with members of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City and is to give a speech today on cross-strait relations at her alma mater, Cornell University, in New York State. She will also attend the annual meeting of the North American Taiwanese Medical Association in New Jersey and take part in a banquet to solicit donations for the DPP on the coming weekend. The DPP chairwoman is scheduled to proceed to Washington on Monday, where she will call at the Heritage Foundation and meet US officials and academics before flying to Los Angeles on Sept. 12 and San Jose on Sept. 14. Tsai is scheduled to return to Taipei on Sept. 16. Tsai’s special aide, former legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), is accompanying her on the US trip.
■EDUCATION
Kaohsiung seeks hosts
The Kaohsiung City Government is recruiting local families to help host 12 student teachers from the US, the Kaohsiung City Education Bureau said in a press release yesterday. The bureau stressed the host families will not have to house them, but just help the teachers to understand and experience life in the city. The application period will end on Sunday, the bureau said.
■DIPLOMACY
Visa-free travel expanded
The Bureau of Consular Affairs announced yesterday that the Dominican Republic recently added Taiwan to its visa-free category. Starting this month, all Republic of China (ROC) passport holders will no longer need a visa to travel to the Caribbean country. However, all travelers must purchase a US$10 Tourist Card at the airport upon arrival. A list of visa-free countries for ROC passport holders is available at www.boca.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=1335&ctNode=39&mp=1.
■CROSS-STRAIT
First quake relief ready
The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) informed its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), in a letter on Tuesday that it would remit a first installment of NT$1.2 billion (US$37.72 million) to help with post-earthquake reconstruction projects in China’s Sichuan Province. The foundation asked ARATS to name a bank account in China to which the funds could be wired for the purposes of rebuilding schools and communities in the province. The SEF told the association that representatives from Taiwan would like to attend the ground-breaking and inauguration ceremonies of the reconstruction projects for which Taiwan is providing money. It also expressed hope that reconstruction plans proposed by experts from Taiwan be given priority consideration. Before handing over power to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government on May 20, the former Democratic Progressive Party government announced that the nation would donate NT$2 billion to help with reconstruction following the magnitude 7.9 earthquake, which killed nearly 70,000 people.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
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