CRIME
Three suspects returned
Three Taiwanese accused of fraud and illegal possession of firearms were repatriated from Macau yesterday to face charges, National Police Agency (NPA) officials said. The repatriation was jointly executed by the agency and the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department based on a joint crime--fighting mechanism between Taiwan and China, agency officials said. The suspects include a 61-year-old man, only identified with his surname of Chang (張), who has been wanted by the Taipei District Prosecutors Office since February last year on charges of fraud and forgery. Chang is suspected of tricking businesses in Taiwan out of a total of NT$100 million (US$3.48 million) before fleeing to China, the agency said. The other two suspects are a 48-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳) and a 43-year-old man, surnamed Hung (洪). They both are wanted on separate charges of violating the Act on Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例) and the Narcotics Endangerment Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例).
HEALTH
Concert focuses on autism
A large outdoor music concert and festival will be held in Taipei on Aug 13 to raise public awareness of autism, said the Kanner Support Group, a foundation dedicated to supporting families with autistic children. Well-known local artists, including Dream Girls, a band popular with teenagers, will be performing free of charge. Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said the event will give Taipei residents a chance to interact with those who suffer from autism, a neural disorder which is characterized by speech difficulties and impaired social skills. Jiang has a son with autism.
ENTERTAINMENT
County takes on violin record
The Changhua County Government on Thursday called on all violin students under the age of 18 to take part in an event in September that hopes to get 5,000 people to play their violins at the same time to break the Guinness World Record. To help promote the event, TV host Janet Hsieh (謝怡芬) and more than 100 schoolchildren staged a performance on Thursday. The mass performance will showcase the county’s musical education, said Changhua County Commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源), who added that it will also be a part of the celebrations for the National Games, to be held in the county from Oct. 22 to Oct. 27. The current record for mass violin playing was set in London in 1925 with 4,000 people taking part, Cho said.
DESIGN
Journal gains wide presence
Taiwan’s International Journal of Design has become the first of its kind in the world to be included in three authoritative international citation indexes at the same time, the National Science Council (NSC) said. The journal was included in the Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index and Arts & Humanities Citation Index this year. Founded in April 2007 by the Taiwan-based Chinese Institute of Design, the journal covers a range of design research areas from product design, visual design, interface and interactive design, to animation and game design, and construction and city design. As of April, the journal had received more than 500 essay submissions from 40 countries, but accepted only 79 of them. Its Web site, www.ijdesign.org, had been viewed more than 800,000 times by people from 200 countries and territories worldwide, with each of the published journals viewed more than 10,000 times.
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