TRAVEL
Hanoi flights to start
Taipei-based StarLux Airlines is to start flights to Hanoi on Jan. 13, as the nation and Vietnam ease border controls, it said yesterday. StarLux will fly between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and the Vietnamese capital once a day using the single-aisle Airbus A321neo, the airline said in a statement, adding that its target market would be Taiwanese businesspeople and tourists. The daily flight is to fly from Taoyuan at 9:25am and land in Hanoi at 11:40am, and then depart from Hanoi at 12:55pm and arrive in Taiwan at 4:35pm, the carrier said. The new route would make travel to Vietnam more convenient, as the airline already provides flights to Da Nang in central Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City in the south, the statement said. StarLux — which has a fleet of 11 A321neo, four A330neo and one A350-900 aircraft — is also to launch flights to the Philippine city of Cebu on Jan. 17, bringing the total number of destinations it serves to 15, all of them in Asia.
SPORTS
Howard out for two weeks
Taoyuan Leopards’ newly recruited eight-time NBA All-Star Dwight Howard is likely to be out of action for two weeks after he felt some knee discomfort during a home game on Sunday, the T1 League pro basketball club said on Monday. Howard felt his left knee act up after a teammate ran into his leg in the first half of a 103-94 home loss to the Taichung Suns at National Taiwan Sport University’s multipurpose arena in Taoyuan. After doctors examined the knee on Monday morning, they said he did not have a major injury, but suggested that Howard rest for two weeks and return to action after fully recovering, the Leopards said in a statement. Howard thanked Chang Gung Memorial Hospital for their efforts and instructions for follow-up treatment, the Leopards said. Howard also visited a traditional Chinese medicine clinic for a second opinion, the Leopards said. The former NBA all-star will probably miss the Leopards’ next two games — against the Suns on the road on Sunday and against the defending champion Kaohsiung Aquas, also on the road, on Dec. 4. If the doctors’ timetable holds, Howard would be back for his team’s following game, at home against the Tainan TSG GhostHawks on Dec. 16.
FOOD
Ginseng shipment seized
A shipment of fresh ginseng from South Korea was recently seized at the border, after being found to contain seven types of pesticides, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. The 325kg of ginseng was confiscated after sample testing on Oct. 18 detected 0.05 parts per million (ppm) of boscalid, as well as varying levels of fluopicolide, propamocarb hydrochloride, pyraclostrobin, fluazinam, penthiopyrad and tebuconazole ranging from 0.02ppm and 0.07ppm, the FDA said. The five detected levels of pesticides — boscalid, fluopicolide, propamocarb hydrochloride, pyraclostrobin and tebuconazole — all exceeded the allowable limit of 0.01ppm, FDA official Chen Ching-yu (陳慶裕) said. Fluazinam and penthiopyrad are banned for use in ginseng, Chen said. The items will either be returned to the country of origin or destroyed, said the FDA, which yesterday also published a list of nine other imported items that recently failed safety inspections. Other items rejected and destroyed or returned by customs included 780kg of fish sauce from Vietnam, 10,080kg of frozen water chestnuts from China and 20kg of cumin powder from India, the FDA reported.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
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