TRADE
Fruit exports double
Exports of lychees, mangoes and dragon fruit to Japan and South Korea more than doubled this year, thanks to relaxations in those nations’ qualification requirements, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said. Last year, the nation exported 1,817 tonnes to Japan and South Korea, while this year it exported 2,760 tonnes, the bureau said in a statement released on Friday last week, the date on which export of the fruits to Japan and South Korea ends each year. Exports of mangoes to South Korea saw 94 percent growth this year, from last year’s 911 tonnes to a record-high 1,767 tonnes, the bureau said, adding that exports to Japan have remained stable in recent years.
SOCIETY
Jobs stressing fathers: poll
With Father’s Day approaching, it might be a good idea for working fathers to seek a source of serenity. Human resource agency 1111 Job Bank yesterday said that according to a survey, up to 88 percent of working fathers are enormously stressed by job-related worries. 1111 Job Bank vice president Daniel Lee (李大華) said that a particular demographic that stands out is fathers born in the 1990s. Commonly paid well below the national average, these fathers tend to suffer the greatest financial pressure. According to the survey, the most prevalent sources of stress are “financial burdens at home” (76.3 percent), “parenting problems” (39.8 percent) and a “lack of pay raises” (38.3 percent). The type of occupation matters greatly as well, with some fields inducing more stress than others. An analysis of the results showed that fathers in human services shoulder the most pressure in the workplace, closely followed by workers in department stores, medical services and agricultural services.
TRAVEL
Peach launches Tokyo flights
Peach Aviation is to launch direct flights between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Saturday to further tap the budget travel market, the Japanese carrier said yesterday. The new route would be Peach Aviation’s fourth air link between the two nations, after introducing services between Taoyuan and Osaka, Taoyuan and Okinawa, and Kaohsiung and Osaka, it said. Peach Aviation is initially offering six round-trip flights per week (excluding Tuesdays) that leave Taoyuan at 12:30am and depart from Haneda on the return leg at 5:55am, chief executive Shinichi Inoue told a press conference in Taipei. Daily flights would start on Oct. 24, the carrier said. Inoue said the schedule should work out well for young Taiwanese, who can travel to the airport after work to catch a flight with plenty of time to spare.
HEALTH
Poultry culled due to H5N2
Taitung authorities on Monday culled hundreds of chickens, ducks and geese at a farm in Taimali (太麻里) after it was confirmed to have been infected with the highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza virus. Authorities said they had received reports from the farm, which had about 600 chickens and more than 100 ducks and geese, that chickens had been dying in large numbers since early last month. The 170 chickens left after the massive die-off were culled, along with the ducks and geese, although they had not been infected. Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection Quarantine Deputy Director-General Shih Tai-hua (施泰華) said the avian flu is an H5 subtype that poses no threat to humans. Shih added that avian flu outbreaks have been reported every two or three days on average since the beginning of the year, mainly in Changhua and Yunlin counties.
ENTERTAINMENT
Maroon 5 tickets go on sale
Fans of US band Maroon 5 who missed the chance to buy tickets to the band’s Sept. 14 concert in Taipei have another chance to watch them perform when tickets to the group’s extra concert go on sale on Sunday. The band announced on July 25 that it would hold an additional concert in Taipei on Sept. 15, also at the Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall. Concert tickets are priced between NT$1,800 and NT$6,800, and are to go on sale at 11am on Sunday at ticket.7net.com.tw and 7-Eleven ibon kiosks. When tickets to Maroon 5’s Sept. 14 concert went on sale in April, all 15,000 were snatched up within 20 minutes, concert promoter Live Nation Taiwan said. The concerts are part of Maroon 5’s World Tour, which began in February in the US.
ENTERTAINMENT
Funeral held for actress
Family and friends gathered at a funeral in Taipei yesterday to say farewell to actress Yang Ko-han (楊可涵), who committed suicide last month after battling depression. The 27-year-old tried to kill herself at her home on July 6, but was found by her boyfriend, actor Chang Ting-hu (張庭瑚), who rushed her to hospital. She was declared dead 12 days later after attempts to revive her failed. In a Facebook post yesterday, Chang said Yang’s death left him in anguish. “Thank you all for your encouragement and care. I am sorry that I cannot say: ‘I am fine’ right now, but I will do my best for Ko-han,’” he wrote. Yang’s death came less than three months after the suicide of 24-year-old model and actress Cindy Yang (楊又穎), who allegedly killed herself because of cyberbullying. The public were urged to gain a better understanding of depression and to stop stigmatizing the illness.
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