■ Diplomacy
Salvadoran president to visit
Salvadoran President Antonio Saca is scheduled to make his first state visit to Taiwan later this month for the second Democratic Pacific Assembly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. During this visit, Saca is also expected to discuss bilateral cooperation on tourism and trade, MOFA officials said. The 39-year-old Saca, a member of the Nationalist Republican Alliance party, was elected president March 21 this year. Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) invited Saca to visit Taiwan when she attended his June 1 inauguration. The second Democratic Pacific Assembly, organized by Lu, is set to take place in Taipei from Aug. 13 to Aug. 15.
■ Society
Cadet cremated
The army cadet who died late last month after developing a fever two days earlier was cremated in Kaohsiung yesterday. The cadet, surnamed Yen, at the Taiwan Military Academy in Fengshan, Kaohsiung, died on July 25 at the age of 20. Because of Yen's outstanding academic performance, the academy decided to present him with an honorary commencement certificate posthumously. Representatives of the army cadets and the school faculty also came to Kaohsiung Municipal Funeral Home to bid farewell to Yen. Yen's death caused alarm, as about two dozen army cadets came down with high fever at about the same time, but their conditions stabilized after treatment in hospitals.
■ Society
Liou in calendar shocker
A Taiwanese-American and former member of US President Bush's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Sean Liou (劉幸誠), has been included in a calendar for the upcoming US Republican National Convention. The Republicans will hold a convention in Santiago, California starting Aug. 6, and a national convention in New York in September. The 2005 calendar aims to highlight the commitment of the Republicans to the protection of civil rights and the determination to promote minority group leaders to serve in major government positions. For this reason, the calendar includes such famous Republicans as President Abraham Lincoln, State Secretary Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. Liou, 47, graduated from a university in Changhua and holds a masters in mathematics from the University of Massachusetts. He serves as a member of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's ?ansition Team?nd is dedicated to helping Asian Americans integrate into American society and upgrade their social status.
■ Diplomacy
Condolences offered
The government is concerned about the large fire that occurred in the downtown area of Paraguay's capital on Sunday and killed nearly 300 people, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday. Anna Kao (高安), deputy director of the ministry's Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, said that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) have sent messages to Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte Frutos to express their sympathy and condolences for the victims. The government and the private sector will also do their utmost in the follow-up relief efforts, Kao said. The fire swept through a busy shopping center on the outskirts of Asuncion at midday on Sunday.
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
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