DIPLOMACY
German official honored
A former deputy director of the German Trade Office Taipei was awarded permanent resident status yesterday in honor of his long-term contributions to promoting use of renewable energy in Taiwan. Andreas Gursch received the Plum Blossom Alien Permanent Residence Certificate from Minister of the Interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) in Taipei. Gursch was given the honor for promoting information exchanges and investment in the areas of renewable energy and “green” buildings during his more than 10 years in Taiwan, according to the National Immigration Agency. Applicants for the Plum Blossom Card must have made special contributions to the nation, be foreign nationals with high-level professional and technical skills needed in the nation, or be immigrants who have invested more than NT$15 million (US$498,440) locally, the immigration agency said.
ENTERTAINMENT
Mayday to open music fest
Rock band Mayday (五月天) are to open one of the nation’s biggest indie music festivals today, while pop music band Sodagreen (蘇打綠), who rose to fame as a frequent performer at the festival, are to perform in its grand finale this year. The annual Ho-Hai-Yan Gongliao Rock Festival, which is held on Fulong Beach in New Taipei City (新北市), will feature an international lineup of artists from Russia, the US, Australia and Japan, as well as local indie bands. Ten local indie finalists will battle it out on Saturday for the Ho-Hai-Yan Indie Music Awards. The festival, organized by the New Taipei City Government, has been held on the beach every July since 2000.
SOCIETY
Female population rising
Women will soon outnumber men in Taiwan for the first time ever, according to the latest Ministry of the Interior statistics. The male population stood at 11.68 million last month, while the female population was 11.67 million, information from the ministry showed. The ratio of females to males was 100 to 100.12 last month, down from 100 to 100.41 in the same month last year, the statistics showed. Department of Household Registration Director Hsieh Ai-ling (謝愛齡) said the Council for Economic Planning and Development has forecast that the ratio will soon be reversed, with females outnumbering males by 3,000 by the end of the year. The female population is expected to pull even with the male population in November, Hsieh said, and the trend is expected to continue for decades, with the female-male ratio hitting 100-93.1 in 2060. Hsieh attributed the change to the nation’s commitment to fighting gender discrimination and the longer life expectancy of women in Taiwan.
EDUCATION
SEF sends China delegation
Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森) yesterday led an education delegation to visit vocational schools in China’s Jiangxi and Anhui provinces in a bid to attract Chinese students to pursue higher vocational studies in Taiwan. The foundation said it is to visit colleges listed under China’s “211 Project,” a project launched in 1995 aimed at transforming selective colleges and universities into top-ranked global schools. Taiwanese schools currently admits degrees from 191 vocational schools in China. This year, the nation also began accepting applications from vocational students from China’s Fujian and Guangdong provinces to pursue higher vocational studies. The foundation said the delegation will also visit Taiwanese businesses in China as part of their trip.
WILDLIFE
New bats found on Matsu
A research team has found a bat species never before sighted in the country on Matsu, according to the Endemic Species Research Institute. During a field project last month, the team found four bat species on the island, including a species previously unknown in Taiwan and its outlying islands that was later identified as the Chinese Pipistrelle. “This is extremely rare and precious, proving that Taiwan has abundant and valuable bat resources,” the institute said in a statement. Taiwan provides a broad spectrum of habitats for wildlife and has one of the highest bat diversities in the world in terms of species density, the Bat Conservation Society of Taipei said. So far, at least 35 species of bats have been recorded, the group said.
SOCIETY
Workers piling on weight
Many deskbound workers try to reduce their stress by snacking in the afternoon and late at night, sometimes eating five meals a day, which can cause weight gain, according to the results of a recent survey. Lin Wen-yuan (林文元), general-secretary of the Taiwan Medical Association for the Study of Obesity, said nearly half of all office workers counter stress by consuming carbohydrates, fried chicken, sugary drinks, or comfort food. Many do not exercise regularly, with 48 percent having an excessive body mass index (BMI) and 20 percent of them being obese, Lin said. Many try to lose weight by cutting down on rice, Lin said, but eating less filling meals may increase their chances of eating high-calorie snacks later in the day. Lin suggested that people with sedentary jobs should exercise for 30 to 50 minutes a day, and at least 150 minutes a week. The survey was conducted in May among 1,068 office workers, aged 25-40, by 104survey.com.
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