TRANSPORTATION
THSR waiting for winner
The 200 millionth person to travel on the nation’ bullet train will be rewarded with unlimited free rides for a year, its operator said yesterday. Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSR) said it expects ridership to reach the 200 million mark by the middle of next month or later. Ridership stood at about 195 million as of Wednesday, with daily ridership hovering at just over 120,000, the company said in a statement. The lucky 200 millionth person will be chosen based on the order of ticket purchase, the statement said. The two passengers who buy tickets immediately before and after the winner will receive eight free business class tickets, it added.
SOCIETY
Abuse cases increase
Seventy-three severe child abuse and filicide-suicide cases have been recorded in the nation so far this year, a sharp 60 percent increase over last year, according to statistics released yesterday by the Child Welfare League Foundation. The cases resulted in the death of 28 children, 40 percent of whom were under three years of age, the statistics showed. With public awareness about the need to protect children against violence increasing, 17,667 possible abuse cases were reported to child protection services last year, up from 10,094 in 2006, the foundations said. Unfortunately, 70 percent of the 73 severe abuse cases that occurred so far this year were never reported, it said. The foundation urged the public to pay more attention to the problem and report any possible cases of child abuse to authorities to help prevent tragedies.
CROSS-STRAIT TIES
Boost in FIT numbers sought
Taiwan is aiming to attract 1,000 independent Chinese tourists per day, the maximum number allowed, by the end of this year, Tourism Bureau Director-General David Hsieh (謝謂君) said. The average number of independent Chinese tourists at present is 750 per day, a sharp increase from the daily average of 157 last year, according to the bureau’s data. Hsieh said the new Taiwan Strait Tourism Association office in Shanghai, which opened yesterday, will focus on promoting independent travel among residents of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Anhui and Jiangxi, when more Chinese cities are added to the independent traveler program. The free independent traveler (FIT) program began in June last year, with residents of Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen eligible to participate. Six more cities, including Tianjin and Chongqing, were added to the program in April and another four were added in August, bringing the total to 13 cities.
EDUCATION
UK scholarship offered
Students can now start submitting their applications for the annual global scholarships offered by the UK government, the British Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei said yesterday. Those who hope to study a master’s degree in the UK can now apply for the Chevening Scholarships and the Delta/Chevening Environmental Scholarships for 2013-2014, the office said, adding that the deadline for Taiwanese applications is Jan. 2, 2013. The scheme targets students who plan to return to Taiwan for a career, said Fleur Willson, head of the office’s political section. The scholarships “aim to support UK foreign policy priorities by creating lasting positive relationships with future leaders, influencers and decision-makers around the world,” the office said.
NATIONAL DEFENSE
Military prepares for snow
The Army said it has recently assigned additional personnel and two amphibious vehicles to a base in central Taiwan to prepare for rescue work on Hehuanshan (合歡山), which gets snow during winter. Two CM-21 Amphibious Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicles and nine servicemen from the Army’s 586 Armored Brigade arrived on Monday at the Wuling (武嶺) base, which is located at an altitude of 3,110m on Hehuanshan, an official with the brigade said. “They will remain there until Feb. 28, 2013, when the snow season ends,” the official said. The rescue team at the Wuling base is prepared mainly to tow large vehicles trapped by heavy snow on the mountain and move them to safety at nearby parking lots. The Wuling facility is the military’s only alpine training base. The base trains military personnel to carry out mountain rescue operations in freezing weather conditions.
SOCIETY
Prison bakery success
Tainan Prison said a bakery workshop run by inmates has proven successful, as its handmade egg rolls have been selling like hot cakes. Shen Hung-da (沈宏達), a section chief at the prison, said sales of cookies and biscuits made by prisoners have increased by 90 percent over the years, with turnover reaching about NT$15 million (US$517,580) last year. The prison bakery, which was established in 2007, began with 10 prisoners, with its average daily sales amounting to just 50 bags in the first year. The staff now numbers 28 due to the popularity of the bakery’s goods, he said. The prison plans to build a new facility next year to help increase the bakery’s production capacity by more than 30 percent, he said, adding that the prison offers many job training programs to inmates to help the prisoners enter the labor market when they are released.
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