■ Transportation
New MRT line opens
The Xiaobitan line of Taipei's MRT system will open at noon tomorrow, officials with the Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. The 1.9km, two-station line has a passenger capacity of 4,140 per hour and branches from Qizhang Station on the Xindian Line, terminating at Xiaobitan Station, the officials said. A regular-length train will be in operation from tomor-row but this will be replaced by a shorter, three-carriage train starting in 2006, the officials said. The interval between each service will be from eight to 12 minutes during peak hour, 12 to 15 minutes off peak and 15 to 20 minutes before 7am and after 10pm, they said.
■ Cross-strait ties
High-tech workers sought
The government will offer more generous incentives to lure Chinese high-tech professionals, Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chair-man Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said yesterday. Chiu made the remarks after listening to an assessment report on a "cross-strait science and technology exchange policy" made by the National Science Council (NSC). Chiu said that according to the report, an average of 130 Chinese academics visit each year to lecture or do research. Most of them are doing post-doctoral research in basic science. He said those who are approved by the NSC to visit for profes-sional activities average 1,000 every year.
■ Politics
Doctor attends hearing
Taiwan High Court judges hearing the pan-blue alliance's suit challenging the March 20 election yes-terday summoned Shin Kong Wu Ho-su Memorial Hospital deputy superintendent Huang Fang-yen (黃芳彥) for questioning. They wanted to ask Huang -- who served as secretary of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) medical team -- about the March 19 assassination attempt against Chen. Huang said he didn't tell Presiden-tial Office Secretary General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) that "the bullet is inside the president's body" when Chiu was holding a news con-ference to tell the nation that Chen had been shot. Huang said the situation at the time was not clear enough to determine whether any bullet was inside Chen. Huang was questioned for about an hour and a half.
■ Cross-strait tiesbr />
MAC mulls MBA program
China-based Taiwanese businesspeople, as well as Fujian-based business-people, may be able to participate in an executive masters in business admin-istration (EMBA) program in Kinmen, according to Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). Council officials said Ming Chuan University had also expressed interest in holding the EMBA classes. Chinese businesspeople enrolled in the classes would be able to enter Taiwan on a three-day tourist visa as classes would most likely take place on the weekends.
■ Crime
Cambodia ousts suspects
Eight Taiwanese men have been deported from Cam-bodia after failing to prove that they intended to marry Cambodian women, police said yesterday, citing sus-picions they were involved in human trafficking. The men were detained last Wednesday while travelling with prostitutes to their hotel, said the chief of the Phnom Penh police anti-human trafficking division. The men claimed they were in Cambodia because "they wanted to marry Cambodian women, but they had not asked permission from their government," officials said.
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