LANGUAGE
RDEC rewards video artists
Prizes were awarded yesterday to creative artists whose short videos stood out in an English film competition held by the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) to promote an English-friendly speaking environment. A total of 31 competitors from around the country participated in the “So Beautiful! My Village” contest, which required each contestant to produce a two-minute film introducing the village or city in which they live, said RDEC Minister Chu Chin-peng (朱景鵬), who praised participants’ creativity and the quality of their work. First place went to Yu Hui-lan’s (游惠嵐) video entitled Monkey Rocks Kao-hsiung featuring the port city. Karl Zimmerman, a retiree from the US, who came to Taiwan a year ago with his Taiwanese wife to run a farm in Shangan Village (上安) in Nantou County, won second prize. According to the commission, the films have been posted on the Internet at www.so-beautiful.org.
DIPLOMACY
Taiwan mulls US midterms
The outcome of the just--concluded US midterm elections present both a challenge and an opportunity Taiwan’s representative to the US Jason Yuan (袁健生) said on Thursday. With many new faces elected to the US Congress, the challenge is how to ensure the newcomers gain a better understanding of Taiwan-US relations and win their support, Yuan said during a gathering with foreign journalists based in Washington. This provides a great opportunity to win new friends, he said. Regarding Taiwanese media reports that the Republican victory in the elections was favorable to Taiwan’s bid to acquire arms from the US, Yuan said it did not make any difference which party controls Congress, as arms sales to Taiwan was a non-partisan issue.
CHARITY
Donation made to families
A philanthropist has donated almost NT$860,000 (US$28,430) to relatives of six Indonesians who died in a freeway construction accident in September, according to the Taipei Economic and Trade Office (TETO) in Indonesia. The donation last month of a total of NT$1 million by Nanlien International Corp chairman Lee Tong-liang (李棟樑) also included money for the family of Chuang Yung-ho (莊永和), the lone Taiwanese killed in the accident. Taiwan’s representative to Indonesia Andrew Hsia (夏立言) presented the remaining NT$857,142 to the Indonesian relatives on Thursday at the TETO in Jakarta. The Ministry of the Foreign Affairs paid for the victims’ relatives’ travel expenses to the Indonesian capital. The seven workers lost their lives when scaffolding collapsed near the Freeway No. 6’s Beishan Interchange in Nantou County on Sept. 30.
SPORTS
Princess re-elected to FEI
Jordanian princess Haya Al Hussein was re-elected president of the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) in a landslide victory at the body’s general assembly in Taipei yesterday and pledged to continue reforms in her second term. The princess won with 90 votes out of a possible total of 124, beating contenders Sven Holmberg of Sweden and Henk Rottinghuis of the Netherlands. During a post-election press conference, she thanked the host country, saying she had many happy memories of Taiwan, including the warmth and hospitality of the people. She added that she would like to visit Taiwan again. Al Hussein also acknowledged criticism about her first term, saying: “I took criticism seriously and I have learned a lot.”
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