With the dispute over Taiwan team's name settled, the chairman of Taiwan's ruling KMT declared Saturday that he will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
"To Taiwan, it is a serious issue whether the name Chinese-Taipei or China-Taipei is used," Wu Poh-hsiung told reporters.
"I am happy about the outcome of our consultations with the Chinese Communist Party. So now I can announce that I will accept their invitation to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics," he said, the dpa reported.
Wu said the name dispute is only one of the many issues between Taiwan and China. In future, the KMT will continue to carry out consultations with China in a rational way, he added.
Taiwan-China ties have been recently strained as the Chinese media has been referring to Taiwan as China-Taipei (Zhongguo Taibei) to suggest the island is part of China, violating the International Olympic Committee decision that Taiwan should be called Chinese- Taipei (Zhonghua Taibei) which means Taiwan is part of the ethnic Chinese group.
Taiwan warned that if the term China-Taipei is used at the Beijing Olympics venue, Taiwan may boycott the games and KMT Chairman Wu Poh- hsiung may not attend the opening ceremony.
Beijing compromised Wednesday by ordering the Chinese press to use Chinese-Taipei when referring to the Taiwan team. dpa dc mfHongKong-Curiosity/ Wedding plans in disarray after restaurant evicted =
Hong Kong (dpa) - About 70 couples have had their wedding plans thrown into confusion after a restaurant was evicted from an exhibition centre for failing to pay its rent, a media report said Saturday.
Club Regency later agreed with International Trademart Company that couples who booked in advance could still use the venue for wedding banquets up until March 2009, the South China Morning Post said.
But adding to the uncertainty, the restaurant, which owed 1.25 million Hong Kong dollars (160,250 dollars) for two months' rent, was unable to say whether couples who cancelled their booking before March would have their deposits returned.
But Club Regency general manager Sandy So confirmed that couples set to be married after March 31 would either get their deposits back or receive a double refund, depending on contract terms.
One woman, identified only as Miss Mak booked another venue for her wedding in November last Thursday before the court case after she was assured that her 30,000 Hong Kong dollar (3,850 dollar) deposit would be returned.
"I'm in a quandary now that I'm caught between two commitments. A lot of terms of the settlement are still unclear," Mak said.
Groom-to-be Tim Wong decided to cancel his booking even at the risk of losing a 36,000 Hong Kong dollar deposit.
Commenting on his decision to evict Club Regency, Judge John Saunders said: "It was a most uncomfortable decision to come to because I was very aware of the circumstances".
He added that the deal between the restaurant and its landlord "was a very sensible resolution of the matter".