CRIME
Customs seizes cigarettes
Kaohsiung Customs yesterday seized 1.35 million packs of cigarettes worth an estimated NT$60 million (US$2.03 million) that were being smuggled into the nation. Customs officials tracked three containers that arrived from Vietnam and were to be re-exported to the Philippines, Kaohsiung Customs Director Chen Shan-ju (陳善助) said. After locating them in the port, officials inspected the containers and found the cigarettes, he said, adding that they arrived with documents identifying their contents as textiles. The cigarettes have been seized in accordance with the Tobacco and Alcohol Administration Act (菸酒管理法) and the Customs Anti-Smuggling Act (海關緝私條例), Chen said, adding that police are investigating the people involved.
WEATHER
Temperatures to fall again
Temperatures across the nation continued to rise yesterday with the weakening of a continental cold air mass, the Central Weather Bureau said. Continuing Monday’s trend, daytime temperatures yesterday rose to between 22°C and 24°C in the north, between 25°C and 26°C in central and southern Taiwan, and 20°C and 23°C in the east, bureau forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said. Meanwhile, a tropical depression near the Philippines could develop into this year’s first tropical storm as early as last night, he said. Although the potential storm, named Bolaven, should not directly affect Taiwan as it moves toward the South China Sea, it could bring moisture to the nation tomorrow, the bureau said. Northeasterly winds tomorrow are also expected to bring wet, chilly weather to the nation, with lows of 16°C expected in northern Taiwan.
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