CRIME
Hand chopper sent to prison
The Taiwan High Court yesterday dismissed a businessman’s appeal and upheld a lower court’s sentence of 10 months behind bars for making an insurance claim after cutting off his own hand. In 2011, Hu Chi-yang (胡其揚) returned from a trip to Fujian Province, China, and claimed that his left hand had been severed by a local robber. Taiwanese and Chinese investigators found that Hu had purchased NT$30 million (US$955,201) worth of insurance shortly before the incident. He made a claim for an insurance payment of NT$15 million after returning from China. Police found that it was Hu who bought the knife used to cut off his hand and that a sample of Hu’s blood collected at the crime scene showed traces of an anesthetic. Hu was indicted in Taipei on fraud charges and sentenced by a district court in October last year. Yesterday’s ruling was final.
HEALTH
‘Disease control taxi’ set up
The Taipei City Department of Health has set up a disease control taxi service in cooperation with 50 volunteer drivers from Crown Taxi to help transport people who may have contracted the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) or other new types of diseases. The goal of the project is to prevent MERS or other potentially dangerous diseases from spreading when people venture out to seek treatment, the department said on Monday. The department held an intensive training session on Tuesday last week and is to hold another today to teach volunteer drivers how to avoid contracting diseases from passengers and disinfect their cars after dropping them off. People with symptoms such as a fever, coughing and shortness of breath can arrange for a pickup by calling 412-8333 or 5510 on a cellphone, the department 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
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