ECONOMY
Corruption perception falls
The nation has made a slight improvement in combating corruption, as indicated by its score in an annual survey of the Asia-Pacific region by the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy. According to the firm’s Corruption Perception Index published on Wednesday, the nation received a score of 5.34 on a scale of zero to 10, with zero being the best. The score was 0.74 points lower than last year, but remained in sixth place on the list of the least corrupt economies. More than 60 percent of respondents said their perception of corruption in Taiwan had not changed much over the past year, about 30 percent said there had been an improvement and 10 percent said it had become worse. The respondents were either employees of foreign enterprises or members of foreign chambers.
CULTURE
Youth ambassadors sought
The government’s “youth ambassadors” program is to focus on Southeast and South Asian nations this year, in line with the “new southbound policy,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday. This year, 75 university students are to be selected for the International Youth Ambassadors exchange program, under which they are to embark on 10-day tours in separate groups to India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam in late August, Department of Non-governmental Organizations International Affairs Deputy Director-General Shen Wen-chiang (沈文強) said. Shen said the tours would cover four main themes: exchange and study; volunteering; courtesy visits; and cultural diplomacy with small cultural performances. Registration for the program is to open early next month and children of new immigrants from Southeast Asia are encouraged to take part, he said.
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