The National Security Bureau (NSB) yesterday said it would immediately commence operations to protect the three pairings of presidential and vice presidential candidates after they register their candidacies later this week.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and his running mate, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), announced last week that they would register this morning.
Their main contenders, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and her running mate, Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), said they would register on Wednesday.
People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and his running mate, Lin Ruey-shiung (林瑞雄), said they would do so on Wednesday or Friday.
The Central Election Commission announced on Wednesday last week that Soong’s campaign had accumulated enough signatures to enter the presidential election, which is to be held concurrently with the legislative elections on Jan. 14.
The bureau said it had provided security reports to the three pairings of presidential and vice presidential candidates and was in the process of contacting each team about the date and time they plan to register.
The bureau’s special protective task force is scheduled to ensure the candidates’ personal safety from the moment they complete the registration process until midnight on election day,
The bureau said that in addition to all campaign occasions, the task force teams are scheduled to be deployed at the candidates’ residences and provide 24-hour protection, with assistance from local police stations responsible for those locations.
A 135-member security task force, augmented by 30 specially trained police officers, will be divided into three teams to provide protection, the bureau said.
For the sake of transparency and fairness, an open drawing of lots by NSB Director Tsai Der-sheng (蔡得勝) was used to determine which task force members would be assigned to which pair of candidates.
Hsu Yen-ching (許燕情), deputy security officer for Ma, will lead the team charged with Ma’s security. Wu Tung-lin (吳東林) will head the team in charge of Tsai and Su, while Lin Wen-hao (林文豪) will lead the team handling Soong and Lin.
All three team leaders hold the rank of major-general.
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