TRAVEL
CAL offers more flights
China Airlines (CAL) yesterday said it would start offering more international flights next month in anticipation of growing post-COVID-19 demand. As many countries are easing their border regulations, CAL said it would gradually increase its passenger flights in the third quarter, with the aim of reaching 150 flights per week, which would be a 40 percent jump. Starting next month, CAL said it would operate a daily flight on its mainstay route between Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) and Haneda in Tokyo. It would also schedule more flights to other Japanese destinations, including Narita airport outside Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka, it added. In a news release, CAL said it would also fly daily to Seoul from August, and expand its services to Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Myanmar, Hong Kong, China, the US, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, New Zealand and Australia.
FOOD SAFETY
Dodgy broccoli halted
Several shipments of broccoli from Thailand and Vietnam recently failed customs inspections because they were found to contain excessive levels of either heavy metals or pesticide residues, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. A total of 13 shipments had been rejected recently at customs, an FDA report on substandard food imports said. They included one batch of broccoli from Thailand and two from Vietnam, which exceeded the safety levels for residues of heavy metals, the FDA said. Another shipment of broccoli from Vietnam was found to contain excessive pesticide residues, it added. Consequently, it said, customs will step up checks of food products brought in by the four importers of the broccoli, from the standard 2 to 10 percent of shipments to about 20 to 50 percent. Meanwhile, a batch of Hericium erinaceus**, known locally as monkey head mushrooms, imported from China, was also found to be contaminated with high levels of pesticide residues, the FDA said, adding that it was the 13th time in six months that had occurred with imports of the product from China.
DIPLOMACY
Thai, Canada envoys named
Taiwan External Trade Development Council vice chairman Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢) was on Monday named the new representative to Thailand, a post that became vacant last year when his predecessor fell ill and resigned. Chuang, who is also chairman of the Taipei World Trade Center, is to head the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Bangkok, an announcement by the Presidential Office said. Chuang, 66, had served as Cabinet spokesman, deputy minister of the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Council and one term as legislator from 2005 to 2008. The Presidential Office has also named Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) as the new representative to Canada. Tseng’s previous positions include representative to the EU and Belgium (2017-2020), deputy head of the National Security Council (2016-2017) and deputy secretary-general at the Presidential Office (2016).
MEDIA
Layoffs at Apple Online
Apple Online, the sister Web site of Hong Kong’s now-
defunct Apple Daily newspaper, plans to lay off 280 employees in August, a Taipei Department of Labor official said yesterday. Chen Kun-hung (陳昆鴻), head of the department’s Employment Security Division, said that based on a layoff plan Apple Online submitted to the agency on Friday, it plans to terminate 280 employees on Aug. 9. The 60-day advance notification provided is in line with the Worker Protection of Mass Redundancy Act (大量解僱勞工保護法), Chen said, adding that some Apple Online employees have reported hearing the news, but have not yet received official notification.
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