■ POLITICS
Dalai Lama hopes to visit
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama would like to visit Taiwan again if given the opportunity, the Taipei-based Taiwan Tibet Exchange Foundation (TTEF) said yesterday. The Dalai Lama met and talked with members of a delegation from the foundation in Dharamsala, India, on Saturday, TTEF said in a press release. During the visit, the Dalai Lama also told TTEF board member Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) and TTEF deputy secretary-general Own Su-jei (翁仕杰) he supported the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the TTEF said. The Dalai Lama told Liu and Own that during his last visit to Taiwan in 2001, he saw many followers of Tibetan Buddhism and many of his own supporters, which he said made a very deep impression on him. “I’ve always thought about revisiting Taiwan over the past seven years, but there were always things coming up at the last minute,” he said.
■ ECONOMY
Ma coins miss the mark
Sales of commemorative coins marking the May 20 inauguration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) fell well below expectations, central bank officials said on Saturday, citing high gold prices as the reason. The central bank invited the public to place orders for its set of gold and silver commemorative coins between May 16 and Friday. As of 5pm on Friday only 8,914 gold coins had been ordered. The central bank had expected to sell 50,000 gold coins at NT$32,000 each. Bank officials attributed the sluggish sales to the high price of gold. The price of gold has surged to US$900 per ounce, more than double the price three years ago, the officials said. The bank received orders for 45,839 silver coins at NT$1,500 each, but it had hoped to sell 100,000.
■ EDUCATION
Official going to APEC forum
Vice Minister of Education Lu Mu-lin (呂木琳) is scheduled to attend the fourth Education Ministerial Meeting of APEC in Peru on Wednesday and Thursday, where Lu will share Taiwan’s experiences with language education. Lu will participate in the meeting in Lima on behalf of Minister of Education Cheng Jei-cheng (鄭瑞城). Representatives for Taiwan and Chile are expected to give keynote speeches on language learning with the theme of “21st century competencies and skills for all.” The delegates are expected to discuss the nation’s initiatives in four areas: language learning; math and science; information technology and system reform; and career and technical education.
■ SOCIETY
Divorces, marriages down
Some 58,000 couples divorced last year, a drop of 6,000 couples from the previous year, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The ministry’s statistics showed that an average of around 160 couples divorced each day. Ministry officials ascribed the decrease to a drop in the number of marriages in the last four years. Couples married for fewer than five years accounted for 30.8 percent of those who divorced, followed by couples married for five to nine years at 26.3 percent. Among longer marriages the divorce rate was lower, but has grown over the past years. Over the past decade the divorce rate has increased 4.15 percent on average each year. The divorce rate among couples married for more than 30 years has grown the most, rising 11.89 percent over the last decade, followed by couples married between 25 and 29 years with a rise of 9.78 percent. The divorce rate among couples married between five and nine years increased by the third-largest rate, 4.56 percent.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
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