SOCIETY
Drugs seized in Indonesia
Taiwanese and Indonesian authorities seized 88 packets (89kg) of amphetamines worth about US$4.5 million in Indonesia in a joint operation on Friday last week, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The operation began after Taiwanese law enforcement was tipped-off several months ago that a criminal gang was trying to smuggle amphetamines in a stacker machine shipped from Kaohsiung to Indonesia, the bureau said. The container had been held in customs in Indonesia since March because of a lack of proper documentation, CIB International Criminal Affairs Division 1st Investigation Corps acting chief Yang Kuo-sung (楊國松) said. Three Indonesian suspects were arrested in a raid last month and the CIB is investigating the source of the drugs, which is likely in the south, he said, adding that police have identified a suspect they want to question.
EARTHQUAKE
Two quakes hit Taitung
Two earthquakes of magnitude 4.3 and 4.9 occurred within one minute of each other in Taitung County yesterday morning, the Central Weather Bureau said. The first quake struck at 10:48am and the second at 10:49am, and they were felt across parts of Taitung, Pingtung, Chiayi, Yunlin, Tainan and Kaohsiung. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter of the first earthquake was about 36.8km north of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 5km, the bureau’s Seismology Center said. The second temblor centered 33.6km west of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 6.5km and created widespread tremors across the center and the south. Seismology Center section chief Lin Tzu-wei (林祖慰) said the quakes were the result of energy released from shifting tectonic plates. “They were typical earthquake swarms, which could strike in a short period of time on a relatively moderate scale,” Lin said.
NATIONAL PARKS
Yushan trashed by tourists
Yushan National Park management on Thursday said that littering has become a problem, as people have been leaving immense amounts of trash when they visit the area. Since 2014, volunteers have cleaned up about 1,057kg of trash in the park, an average of 250kg per year, the management team said, citing figures from last month. About 1 million people visit the 103,121 hectare park every year and its environment and ecology could come under great strain if people continue to leave behind plastic bottles, food waste, toilet paper, cigarette butts and other types of trash, the management said, adding that visitors to Yushan National Park are asked to take their trash with them when they leave. Visitors are also reminded to use bathrooms so as not to contribute to pollution of the natural habitat, the management team added.
TOURISM
Kinmen visitor numbers jump
About 545,000 tourists visited Kinmen County in the first nine months of the year, an increase of 51 percent from the same period last year, data from the county government showed on Wednesday. Most visitors were Taiwanese, followed by Chinese tourists and international visitors, data showed. The county government has developed themed travel tours, music festivals and mountain hiking for domestic and foreign visitors, the Kinmen County Tourism Department said, adding that the county government would continue efforts to boost tourism and offer visitors a better experience.
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