The Ministry of National Defense (MND) confirmed on Tuesday that it would organize a summer camp on the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), a program under its annual military summer camps.
The status of the Nansha Camp, to be held on Itu Aba (Taiping Island, 太平島), had been uncertain because of ongoing disputes over sovereignty of islands in the South China Sea, with claims by Taiwan, China and the Philippines, among others.
The camps are aimed at university students to let them gain a better understanding of the country’s South China Sea policy, said Lisa Chi (池玉蘭), head of the General Political Warfare Bureau’s Cultural and Political Division.
The Nansha Camp this year is open to university students majoring in political science, foreign affairs, marine ecology and environmental issues.
Of the 10 types of camps open this year, most people opted for the Kinmen military combat camp, parachute training camp and the Penghu military combat camp, according to ministry statistics.
Most of the camps are only open to university and high school students, while two of them — the armored-vehicle experience camp and the science camp — are open to junior-high school students.
This year, the ministry selected 2,910 candidates out of 7,341 who applied to take part in the annual camps.
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