Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) boasted yesterday that police riding a fleet of 37 Harley Davidsons protected her during her recent American visit and that the rumbling motorcycle escort was a sign that US-Taiwan ties are as good as ever.
Lu returned home yesterday from a two-week tour to Latin America that included brief stops in Las Vegas and San Francisco.
The trip was closely monitored in Taipei for any signs of strains in Taiwan's relationship with its most important friend.
US officials have recently complained that Taiwan has been unnecessarily provoking the nation's biggest rival, China.
Lu said at the airport yesterday that she was treated with dignity and a "high standard of safety protection" during her US stops.
She fondly recalled that police on 37 Harley Davidsons escorted her when she arrived in San Francisco on Sunday.
"You can all ease your minds," Lu said. "Ties between Washington and Taipei are as good as ever."
The rare recent US-Taiwan friction happened during the presidential campaign ahead of the March 20 election.
Lu and President Chen Shui-bian (
US leaders, including President George W. Bush, issued a stern warning to Chen to be more cautious and preserve the status quo with China.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
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A KFC branch in Kaohsiung may be fined between NT$60,000 and NT$200 million (US$1,907 and US$6.37 million), after a customer yesterday found an entire AAA battery inside an egg tart, the Kaohsiung Department of Health said today. The customer was about to microwave a box of egg tarts they had bought at the fast-food restaurant’s Nanzih (楠梓) branch when they checked the bottom and saw a dark shadow inside one of them, they said in a Threads post. The customer filmed themself taking the egg tart apart to reveal an entire AAA battery inside, which apparently showed signs of damage. Surveillance footage showed
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