DIPLOMACY
New York official to visit
Taiwan-born New York City Comptroller John Liu is scheduled to visit Taiwan today and tomorrow. Liu, the Big Apple’s first comptroller of Asian descent, is seeking the US Democratic Party’s nomination to run for New York City mayor next year. He will travel to Taiwan after visiting South Korea. His itinerary includes visits to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and meetings with Taiwanese experts and business executives. Liu will also deliver a speech on New York City’s economic and financial situation at the Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance, a think tank and education institution.
AVIATION
Airport worker finds bullets
A worker at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport who was remodeling a section of the ceiling discovered several live bullets when they fell from the roof space, aviation police said. The worker was renovating the ceiling of Terminal 1 on Aug. 21 when he dislodged the nine bullets, the police said. The 7.62mm rounds were covered in dust and the worker did not recognize them as ammunition until several days later when he was cleaning up. He immediately reported his discovery to police. The bullets were sent to the Ministry of National Defense, where they were identified as having been made in Thailand by the Royal Thai Armed Forces. Police are still investigating how the bullets got there.
CROSS-STRAIT TIES
New dictionary published
A dictionary featuring the differences between the Mandarin Chinese spoken in Taiwan and that in China was published in China yesterday as part of a joint effort to promote Chinese-language reference materials. The dictionary, which includes common Mandarin Chinese words and phrases used in Taiwan and China, is part of a cross-strait cooperation project aimed at enhancing cultural exchanges by compiling and publishing Chinese-language reference books and setting up a database for the languages used on both sides of the Strait. The 1,800-page dictionary, which contains 5,700 words and more than 27,000 phrases, took 200 Taiwanese and Chinese academics more than 15 months to compile, according to the the dictionary’s Chinese publisher, the China Lexicographical Society. Both sides will continue compiling words and phrases, and will add more vocabulary for daily life situations in the next edition, Taiwan’s National Cultural Association secretary-general Yang Tu (楊渡) said.
SOCIETY
Residency rules to be eased
National Immigration Agency Director-General Hsieh Li-kung (謝立功) said the agency is preparing a draft amendment for legislative review that proposes annulling regulations stipulating that foreign residents must live in the country for at least 183 days per year to keep residency. The draft amendment will also allow foreign residents to keep their permanent residency even if they live outside Taiwan for a long period of time, Hsieh said in a recent media interview. However, the period of time will be limited to a maximum of five continuous years, he said, adding that he expects the Legislative Yuan would quickly pass the amendment after lawmakers start discussing the proposal. If the proposed amendment to the Immigration Act is adopted, it will benefit more than 460,000 foreign residents currently living in Taiwan.
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