■ TRADE
Kao leads delegation to PRC
Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉), secretary-general of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), is scheduled to visit regions adjacent to the Bohai Sea in northern China from today until July 11 to promote Chinese investment in Taiwan. Kao said that apart from encouraging Chinese enterprises to invest in Taiwan, he would also help to set up cooperation channels for companies on the two sides of the Strait and would explore feasible opportunities for Taiwanese businesses. Kao will lead a delegation to Qingdao in handong Province and Shenyang and Dalian in Liaoning Province. Over the past year, SEF personnel have held several seminars for Taiwanese businesses in the Yangzhe River Delta, Pearl River Delta and coastal areas of Fujian Province, where there are higher concentrations of businesses from Taiwan, he said.
■ SPORTS
National flags prepared
The national flags of 105 countries and areas have been prepared for the July 16 opening ceremony of the World Games in Kaohsiung. The flags will be distributed by the Kaohsiung Organizing Committee (KOC) and will be flown at the various stadiums, venues and exhibitions related to the Games. The flags cost the organizers NT$900,000, the KOC said. The Games, which will run through July 26, are expected to attract participants from the 105 countries and areas, with the 4,000 competing athletes representing 90 nationalities. During the 11-day competition, 26 official sports, five invitational sports and various other activities and exhibitions are scheduled. The KOC said there would be at least six events per day, with some days seeing as many as 14 events.
■ CRIME
Corruption report out soon
The Executive Yuan plans to make public a report on alleged corruption in the military on Wednesday and present an action plan “to clean up the government,” Vice Minister of Justice (MOJ) Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) said yesterday. Huang said the Ministry of Defense (MND) and his ministry had both presented their reports to the Executive Yuan, but he declined to reveal any of the contents before they are published on Wednesday at a Central Integrity Council meeting to be chaired by Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄). The Council is composed of 15 Cabinet members and three experts representing civil organizations — Red Cross Society of the Republic of China president C.V. Chen (陳長文), Hung Yung-tai (洪永泰), a professor of politics at National Taiwan University and chairman of Transparency International-Taiwan, and Chilik Yu (余致力), a professor of public administration at Shih Hsin University.
■ SPORTS
Students set off on canoes
A group of students set off from the northeastern coast yesterday on a round-the-nation canoeing trip, hoping to use the challenging voyage to convey their love for their homeland and the sea and to promote water sports. More than 30 National Taiwan Ocean University students and recent graduates will row three two-man canoes in a 1,006km relay that will take one and a half months to complete. The canoes set off from Dawulun beach in Keelung City and will circumnavigate Taiwan in an anti-clockwise direction. Huang Wei-lun (黃偉倫), head of the round-the-nation canoeing team, said that while students take turns rowing, the others will take a boat and photograph the canoes, the coastal landscape and ecological changes along the coast.
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