■ POLITICS
Hackers attack DPP site
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) condemned Chinese hackers on Tuesday for breaking into its Web site for a third time. Liao Chih-chien (廖志堅), deputy director of the DPP’s Information and Culture Department, confirmed that the Web site was taken offline after staff found that the DPP’s party flag on the site had been replaced by China’s national flag. The Chinese hackers also posted the words “protesting the release” of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Chen was recently released from detention without bail by the Taipei District Court after prosecutors indicted him and his wife on charges of embezzlement, bribe-taking and money laundering. Liao said IT engineers would need a full day to determine whether important information on the site had been lost. This was the third time Chinese hackers had broken into the DPP’s Web site. The previous two incidents occurred in June 2004 when Chen was DPP chairman and again during the chairmanship of Yu Shyi-kun.
■ POLITICS
Asset row rumbles on
The Ministry of Justice said yesterday that government ministries should decide themselves whether directors of state-owned enterprises and non-profit organizations should declare their assets. Ministry of Justice Deputy Minister Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) told a press conference that since enterprises and non-profit organizations owned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Government Information Office and other agencies have different characteristics, the individual ministries should decide whether directors should declare their assets. Under the amended Act on Property Declaration by Public Servants (公職人員財產申報法), which took effect in October, board directors of state-owned enterprises and non-profit organizations must declare their assets and those of their spouses. The deadline for declarations is the end of this month. A number of board members of institutions supervised by the ministries have threatened to quit over the amendment.
■ CRIME
Yeh released on bail
Former Bureau of Investigation director-general Yeh Sheng-mao (葉盛茂) was released on NT$5 million (US$156,000) bail last night. He is banned from relocating. Yeh was detained on Oct. 6 for withholding information about the former first family’s alleged money laundering and leaking information to former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). The court found Yeh guilty of corruption, concealing a government file and leaking confidential information, for which he received an eight-and-a-half year jail term. He was also convicted of leaking confidential information, for which he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years. The two sentences were combined into a jail term of 10 years. Yeh will also be deprived of his civil rights for five years.
■ SCIENCE
Park scheduled for 2013
The Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park will be fully operational by 2013, following a modification to its development strategy earlier this year, science park administration officials said yesterday. Randy Yen (顏宗明), director-general of the Hsinchu Science Park Administration, said that most of the park would be devoted to a national medical center that focuses on clinical research and translational medicine. Yen said he hoped the center would bridge the gap between clinical practice and biomedical research and boost the nation’s biomedical industry.
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