SOCIETY
Motorist thankful for life
A motorist driving on the twisting roads of Yuemei Mountain (月眉山) in Keelung almost ended up in a ravine over the weekend after attempting to dodge a motorcycle that appeared around a bend going in the opposite direction. The Keelung Police Department Second Precinct Sinyi police station received reports on Saturday that a silver car had sped off a road into a ravine on a winding mountain road on Yuemei Mountain. Upon arriving at the scene, police found the car balanced precariously on the road railing, in danger of falling into the mountain valley any moment. The 22-year-old driver, Hsiao Cheng-lin (蕭鉦霖), was squatting along the roadside, pale and trembling. Had the vehicle hit the railing any harder, it would have plunged into the valley below, Hsiao said.
SPORTS
Taipei hosts sports forum
The International University Sports Federation (FISU) Forum, hosted by Taiwan for the first time, opened yesterday in Taipei, with representatives from more than 60 countries gathering to discuss education, sports and culture. In particular, participants will discuss the sustainable development of university sports, but students and university sport leaders from around the world will also have the opportunity to debate major social issues, FISU president Claude-Louis Gallien said. “I encourage you all to take this opportunity to discuss, exchange, share, in a word, to learn,” Gallien said in his opening remarks at the 11th FISU forum. “There is nothing like sports,” he said. “It should be part of the best education.” Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said he hoped the participants would also spend time exploring Taipei. A total of 220 representatives from 67 countries will attend the forum, which runs through Saturday.
CRIME
TSU reaffirms Lin position
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday reiterated that Justin Lin (林毅夫), who defected to China in 1979 and currently works as a vice president at the World Bank, should not be allowed to return to Taiwan because of his continued act of treason. TSU party whip Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) said Lin’s case was different from the spies who were captured in China, making the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) planned prisoner exchange program illegitimate because Lin “had betrayed the army, Taiwan and his comrades.” Lin’s return would pave the way for the return of other Taiwanese defectors, TSU lawmaker Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲) said. The TSU said it supports the position of the Ministry of National Defense, which said on March 14 that Lin would be arrested and face treason charges if he returned.
SCHOLARSHIP
ICBSS hopes for partnership
A prestigious Athens-based think tank said it hopes to form a partnership with the Taiwan Academy in an effort to enhance academic exchanges between Taiwan and Greece. The International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS), founded in 1998, is committed to promoting multilateral cooperation between the countries in the Black Sea region and with their international partners. ICBSS head Zefi Dimadama said the institute was planning to cooperate with the Taiwan Academy — a brainchild of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) aimed at spreading “Chinese culture with unique Taiwanese characteristics” throughout the world. Taiwan’s representative to Greece, Agnes Chen (陳華玉), said her office has already been in contact with the institute to discuss how to further strengthen academic exchanges.
WILDLIFE
Park hopes to track birds
Officials at a national park in Greater Tainan on Sunday said it would work with a wetland administrator in Shanghai to track black-faced spoonbills by satellite to study the birds’ migration patterns. The Taijiang National Park Administration said it plans to attach satellite transmitters to five black-faced spoonbills and release two in Tainan and one in the Chongming Dongtan Birds Nature Reserve in Shanghai to track their annual migration. The administration hopes to release the other two birds in South Korea, but has not yet contacted South Korean authorities, it said. The administration is also waiting for approval from the Council of Agriculture to fit the transmitters to the birds. It added that the batteries on the device can last for about a year.
ENTERTAINMENT
Nikki Hsieh wins award
Taiwanese actress Nikki Hsieh (謝欣穎) took the Best Actress award at the 10th Asian Film Festival in Italy for her role as a corpse makeup artist in the movie Make Up (命運化妝師), the festival announced on its Web site on Sunday. “I’m very happy. I think I’m really lucky and I’d like to thank all my supporters,” she said. “I could never win too many awards and I hope to win more,” she was quoted as saying by the Chinese-language Apple Daily. Hsieh also won a Best Actress award for her performance in the Chinese-language film at last year’s Taipei Film Festival. Also at the Italian festival, Taiwanese director Cheng Fen-fen (鄭芬芬) won the Best Original Film award for her movie Bear It (熊熊愛上你). The festival, which began on March 16 and ended on Saturday, screened 40 films from Taiwan, Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.
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