■ Diplomacy
Mongolian office opens
Mongolia's representative office in Taipei is open and visa service has begun, sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Vagva Vatmunkh, Mongolia's first represen-tative, arrived in Taipei earlier this month to preside over the opening of the representative office, said Lin Chin-hsiung (林金雄), deputy director of the minis-try's Department of West Asian Affairs. The foreign ministry is cooperating with the Ministry of Economic Affairs in promoting trade and business with Mongolia, Lin said. The foreign ministry is also collaborating with the Council of Labor Affairs to introduce Mongolian workers to this country, he said.
■ Public security
Alleged shovel thief nabbed
The Criminal Investigation Bureau of the National Police Administration announced yesterday that police had broken a theft ring that specialized in stealing earth-moving hydraulic shovels to sell overseas, mostly to con-tractors building China's Three Gorges Dam. Wang Teh-ming (王德明), 43, a fugitive on the most-wanted list, was arrested in Tai-chung on Sunday, the bureau said. Police discovered 14 shovels, with a value of around NT$3 million (US$86,200) each that Wang had allegedly stolen from surrounding areas. Another suspect, who police declined to identify, is still at large. A police officer told reporters that "most of the hydraulic shovels were smuggled to China via containers .... The rest of them were either shipped to Southeast Asia or sold to the remote moun-tainous areas here," the officer said.
■ Executive yuan
Liu to keep present job
Cabinet Deputy Secretary-General Liu Yu-shan (劉玉山) will stay on at his post, a Cabinet official revealed yesterday. "Since it's extremely hard to find someone who has such extensive experience and prestige as Liu, he has agreed to stay on," said Cabinet Secretary-General Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳). It was widely believed that Liu would replace former Mainland Affairs Council vice chairman Lin Chong-Pin (林中斌).
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
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