■ Leisure
Dancing contest looms
The Golden Diamond Cup World Ballroom Dancing Open Tournament 2003, the eighth of its kind to be held in Taiwan, is scheduled for Sunday in Taipei, with some 220 pairs of dancers from home and abroad participating. Title winners of the 2002 World Ballroom Dancing England Open -- Italian Luca Tonello and his Russian partner Ekaterina Baroulina -- are among the top foreign dancers coming from the US, Italy, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore to compete. The pair who wins the title of the Golden Diamond Cup will be awarded with a trophy and a symbolic NT$20,000 (US$587) in cash, said Kao Chen-tsung (高承宗), chairman of the Professional Ballroom Dancing Association of the Republic of China, which is sponsoring the international tournament. All dancers will compete in two categories: modern ballroom dancing and Latin dancing.
■ Diplomacy
Chen wants Seoul air links
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday urged South Korea to hold talks on resuming air links, which Taipei cut after Seoul dropped Taiwan to recognize the PRC in 1992. "Taiwan and South Korea have close and friendly ties and bilateral trade has been growing, with South Korea enjoying a huge trade surplus. This reflects the urgency in resuming an air link," Chen said while receiving a South Korean Christian leader, the Reverend Cho Yong Ki. "I hope the two sides can smoothly restore air links under the principle of equality and mutual benefit," Chen said. Cho heads South Korea's largest Christian church -- the True Revival Church, which has 700,000 members. He is heading a 200-member delegation that arrived in Taiwan on Monday to hold prayer meetings for world peace and to proselytize.
■ Internet
Women more active on Web
Taiwan's female Internet users are more active online than their male counterparts, according to the results of a recent survey that found female users in Taiwan spend more time browsing the Web than males. According to a poll conducted by Insight Xplorer, a market-consulting company based in Taipei, there were 54 males and 46 females out of every 100 Internet users in July. Each female user spent 1.5 times the average time online posted by male users, while they were also 1.4 times and 1.5 times more active in logging on to the Internet and viewing Web pages, respectively. In July, more than 7 million Taiwan Internet users visited B2C Web sites, accounting for 80 percent of the country's total cyber population, the survey discovered.
■ Cross-strait ties
Space program goes to seed
China will invite rival Taiwan to send seeds into space aboard its Shenzhou V rocket, expected to be launched later this year, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday. China has sent more than 70 types of crops into space since 1987, which has helped it develop new strains of rice, wheat, tomatoes and green peppers, the news agency said. Science and Technology Minister Xu Guanhua (徐冠華) said on Tuesday that preparations for the flight were on track as part of the country's plan to put a person in space. "Crop seeds in Taiwan, like rice, may be carried on board the Shenzhou V if our counterparts in Taiwan wish," Xinhua quoted Liu Luxiang, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as saying.
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