■ Earthquake
Quake in Kaohsiung County
An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale jolted the nation yesterday but there were no reports of damage or casualties. The tremor hit at 4:17am, with its epicenter 16km south of Chiahsien in Kaohsiung County and 6.9 kilometers underground, according to the Seismology Center. A quake with a magnitude of 5.8 shook the nation on May 1, killing two and injuring a Canadian tourist.
■ Environment
Spoonbills moving on
All the black-faced spoonbills that wintered in Taiwan are expected to leave within two weeks as summer approaches, a spokesman for the Tainan Black-Faced Spoonbills Conservation Association said yesterday. At the moment, there are more than 40 black-faced spoonbills in the Tainan area. The vast majority of the roughly 700 specimens of the endangered species that had been in the nation left after the weather began to warm up, the spokesman said.
■ Exports
Taiwan's food goes Brit
A shopping center in north London plans to sponsor a Taiwan food exhibition this November featuring Taiwan's agricultural products and canned and frozen foods. Yeh Ming-shui (葉明水), an official in charge of marketing at the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), called on Phoebe Lim, president of the Oriental City shopping center, on Friday to finalize the agreement. After visiting Oriental City's supermarkets, Yeh decided that Taiwan's agricultural products were comparatively higher in quality to similar products imported from Southeast Asian nations. Yeh said that Taiwan's lychees, pineapples, guavas, wax apples, Buddha-head fruits and teas have the potential to make inroads in British markets. Some brand-name canned foods also could compete with similar products from Southeast Asian countries.
■ Hakka affairs
7-11 launches Hakka foods
The convenience store chain 7-11 launched a line of traditional Hakka foods yesterday as part of its collaboration with the Council of Hakka Affairs to promote Hakka culture during the council's Hakka Tung Blossom Festival. The foods include Hakka lunchboxes and other items such as Hakka-style moichi (glutinous rice balls), laichai popsicles, garlic blossom tea and garlic pig intestine potato chips. The limited food line will be available in 7-11s across the country from May 11 to June 8. The food line is part of the council's effort to enter into promotions with private entities during tung blossom season. The festival, in its third year, has become a major business generator as people flock to view the white tung blossoms.
■ Religion
Falun Dafa hails mothers
The Taiwan Falun Dafa Society is sponsoring activities today in Taipei to celebrate Mother's Day and the twelfth anniversary of the establishment of Falun Dafa. In Taipei, the organization is hosting a carnival with food and crafts stands at National Taiwan University's gymnasium, next to Drunken Moon Pond. The carnival will also host demonstrations of Falun Gong and a calligraphy competition along with an exhibition of photos of Falun Gong being practiced worldwide. The society will also show a videotaped statement by Falun Gong's founder, Li Hong-zhi (李洪志). Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, was established in China by Li in 1992 and combines meditation and physical movement.
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