TOURISM
Basketball fundraiser set
Entertainers from Taiwan and South Korea are scheduled to take part in a charity baseball game in Greater Taichung on Sunday, as part of a collaborative effort with the Tourism Bureau to promote travel through sports exchanges. The Taiwanese team is to be led by comedian Peng Chia-chia (澎恰恰). The money raised from the free game at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium is to be donated to charities for autistic children, the bureau said. The bureau is also planning to organize a “Taiwan Day” next month, in collaboration with the US NBA Houston Rockets basketball team, as part of the efforts to give Taiwan greater visibility. Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin (林書豪), the first NBA player of Taiwanese descent, is likely to be a major attraction, the bureau said.
SOCIETY
Children’s film fest to open
The Taiwan International Children’s Film Festival, which is set to start in Taipei on March 27, is this year aimed at inspiring children to think more openly and creatively. The biennial festival, to run until April 6 at the Xinyi Vieshow Cinemas, will feature more than 100 films from 32 countries, according to Taiwan Public Television Service (PTS), the festival’s organizer. The films’ main themes range from friendship, sibling relationships and family struggles, to adventure, science and life and death. The theme of this year’s festival — “Diversified Thinking and Boundless Creativity” — was chosen to challenge and inspire youngsters to think about things from different perspectives and beyond boundaries, PTS said.
CRIME
Family may sue prosecutors
The family of a man who reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself with shoelaces in a detention room of the Yunlin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said it is considering filing suit against personnel for neglecting their duties to guard him. District prosecutors’ office spokesman Kuo Chih-ming (郭志明) said the 35-year-old man, surnamed Lo (羅), was arrested with three others on suspicion of trading drugs and carrying pistols. They were brought to the office at 5pm on Friday, Kuo said, adding that to prevent them from colluding on their statements, police kept them in four separate rooms. The spokesman said police had also taken the men’s belts. However, at 7:10pm, police found Lo dead after he had allegedly hanged himself with shoelaces. Kuo said the office has apologized to Lo’s family and that a criminal investigation has been launched.
AGRICULTURE
Lettuce exports set to rise
Farmers are likely to export more lettuce this year compared with last year after securing more orders through contract farming, according to the Council of Agriculture. The nation’s farmers grow the vegetable on about 600 hectares of land — in which the crops are sold to designated buyers at fixed prices, the council’s Agriculture and Food Agency said. Exports of lettuce have increased substantially in the past four years, steadily rising from 2,904 tonnes in 2009 to 4,012 tonnes in 2010, 4,565 tonnes in 2011, 8,311 tonnes in 2012 and 10,384 tonnes last year. Lettuce exports were worth NT$283 million (US$9.36 million) last year, more than tripling the NT$90 million earned in 2009, data showed. Japan is Taiwan’s largest export destination for lettuce, accounting for 80 percent of total lettuce exports.
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