Investigators have made a breakthrough in their quest to find out how the captain and crew vanished from a Taiwanese fishing boat found drifting on the high seas off Australia's northwest coast, news reports said yesterday.
Local calls made in Bali and in the Philippines were from mobile phones belonging to the captain and first mate, both of whom are Taiwanese.
The phones might have been taken by pirates or mutineers, according to Australia's AAP news agency, which quoted Taiwanese sources about the phone records of the two missing sailors.
The Indonesian-flagged vessel also had 10 Indonesian crew members.
Australian investigators are trying to piece together the movements of the High Aim 6 between Oct. 31, when it left the port of Liuchiu in Taiwan, and Jan. 8, when it was boarded by navy personnel 250km off the west coast of Broome in Western Australia.
There was plenty of fuel, as well as food and water, on the modern long-line fishing boat when it was boarded. There was no sign of a struggle and no evidence that lifeboats were laun-ched. Personal belongings were also found on the 130-tonne vessel, including seven toothbrushes.
A catch of rotting fish in the hold was taken as evidence that the High Aim 6 was a legitimate fishing vessel.
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