By Jason Pan / Staff reporterPolice in Taoyuan on Thursday evening arrested four people in connection with an alleged illegal remittance ring. Taoyuan’s Jhongli Police Precinct raided three stores on Thursday, seizing NT$300,000, along with receipts for wiring money to overseas destinations, a ledger book and other documents, police said. Investigators said that Lee employed people from Southeast Asian countries at the stores, as they could communicate with migrant workers in providing the money remittance service. “We urge migrant workers not to use these underground banks, for the sake of saving some money. It is highly risky to make such illegal money remittance overseas by unregulated operators, because they can lose all their money when going through shady dealers,” the Jhongli Police Precinct said.

Reuters, LAHORE, PakistanDinesh Chandimal yesterday helped Sri Lanka earn a handy first-innings lead against Pakistan, whose strong reply left the second and final Test evenly poised in Karachi. Earlier, Shaheen Afridi claimed his maiden five-wicket haul and Mohammad Abbas returned 4-55 to restrict Sri Lanka to a sub-300 total and keep the hosts alive. Resuming on 64-3, Sri Lanka lost both overnight batsmen cheaply. Chandimal hit a four off Abbas to bring up his fifty and put Sri Lanka ahead. Perera, who was hit on the helmet grill by an Afridi delivery, made a defiant 48 before falling.

Many new residents from countries such as Vietnam, Myanmar and China led other participants in singing along at the event, which was subsidized by the government’s New Residents Development Fund. Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) was there to join the new residents in enjoying the event. I watched as these new friends sang so well the Taiwanese version of this Christmas song. “This time, we especially invited them to sing at the opening of this Christmas event so that they could share the Taiwanese version of this Christmas song and be proud of all their hard work. The measures show how important new residents are to the government and how crucial it is that they have no worries living in Taiwan, the ministry added.

AFP, WASHINGTONUS Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said he had no doubt that Washington and Beijing would sign a new partial trade agreement next month, marking a truce after nearly two years of conflict. “I’m very confident,” Mnuchin told CNBC. However, Mnuchin said that this time, Washington and Beijing were on the same page. He has urged the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates to zero to weaken the greenback. “Agreement of the phase one deal between the US and China has removed quite a lot of the uncertainties in the outlook for 2020,” AxiTrader senior market analyst Stephen Innes said.

AFP, WASHINGTONA wave of debt in emerging and developing nations has grown faster and larger than in any period of the past five decades and could end with another crisis, the World Bank warned on Thursday. If the debt wave breaks, the crisis could be more damaging, as it would engulf private companies in addition to governments at a time when economic growth is sluggish, the World Bank said in a report that covers four debt surges from 1970 to last year. “The size, speed and breadth of the latest debt wave should concern us all,” World Bank president David Malpass said in a statement. The IMF reported that total global debt rose to US$188 trillion at the end of last year, equivalent to nearly 230 percent of the world’s economy. Better debt management, improved tax collection, flexible exchange rates and tighter fiscal rules to manage spending could help avert a crisis and soften the blow if one occurs, the World Bank said.

AFP, MOSCOWRussian media yesterday identified a man who allegedly opened fire near the headquarters of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in central Moscow, killing one person and wounding five, as a 39-year-old from a nearby town. Numerous channels on the Telegram messenger service published a photograph of the dead attacker, a bearded man in glasses with his face bloodied. The attack took place in the early evening as people were going home from work or sat in cafes. It came on the eve of Russia’s Day of Security Service, which is celebrated on Dec. 20, and hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin held a marathon annual news conference in central Moscow. Russia has in the past few years been hit by a spate of attacks blamed on Muslim extremists, often hailing from the restive northern Caucasus region.

The Wild on Thursday took the third and final meeting of the regular season against the Arizona Coyotes 8-5, scoring all eight of their goals in the final two periods. Marcus Foligno, Eric Staal and Mats Zuccarello each had a goal and two assists for the Wild. Ryan Hartman and Brad Hunt each added a goal and assist, while Ryan Suter, Ryan Donato and Luke Kunin also scored for the Wild. The Wild outscored the Coyotes 4-1 in the second period and 4-3 in the third period, after trailing 1-0 at the end of the first period. The Coyotes’ Jakob Chychrun scored two goals, giving him a career-high nine this season, while Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Clayton Keller and Phil Kessel also scored.

Spending by the Japanese government is to increase by about 1.2 percent to ￥102.7 trillion (US$939 billion) in the year starting April, the Japanese Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Outlays on social security would account for about 57 percent of spending outside of debt servicing and transfers to regional governments, the ministry said. In the face of public debt that exceeds 200 percent of GDP, Abe’s administration has been narrowing Japan’s budget deficit and trimming its issuance of new bonds to fund spending. Some economists also cast doubt on whether bond issuance was the right yardstick of progress for righting the nation’s finances. “The focus seems to be on new bond issuance.

Staff writer, with CNATaiwan has won the right to host the 2022 World Indigenous Tourism Summit, the Council of Indigenous Peoples said on Thursday after signing a memorandum of understanding with the organizers earlier in the day. Taiwan only began focusing on indigenous tourism in 2015, the council said. Benny Sherman, chairman of the leadership council of the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance, which organizes the summit, said that he gained a favorable impression of Taiwan after spending just one week in the nation. During his week-long stay, he was reassured that the decision to award Taiwan the right to host the summit was fully justified, Sherman said. It aims to bring together indigenous tourism operators and leaders of Aboriginal groups to discuss economic, environmental, social and political advances, and challenges in indigenous tourism, the alliance said.

AFP, GOLD COAST, AustraliaChina’s Yuan Yechun yesterday blitzed the field for a one-shot lead after the second day of the European Tour cosanctioned Australian PGA Championship, but wily Adam Scott lurked dangerously for a weekend charge. It left him one clear of Australia’s Anthony Quayle, who mixed six birdies and an eagle with two bogeys in his 66. 18 Scott is well placed heading into today, two off the pace after draining three birdies in his final four holes. Another Australian and the defending champion, Cameron Smith, also made a move, stroking a bogey-free 65 to surge back into contention for a third Australian PGA title. “It was tough yesterday, [because it was] so draining last week... It’s amazing what a day can do in the game of golf,” he said.

Reuters, LONDONParliament was yesterday to vote on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s deal to leave the EU, a move he described as delivering on his promise to “get the Brexit vote wrapped up for Christmas” after his landslide election victory. After suffering several defeats in the previous parliament, Johnson enjoys a large majority and should face little opposition in passing the bill to implement Britain’s biggest foreign and trade policy shift in more than 40 years. “This is the time when we move on and discard the old labels of ‘leave’ and ‘remain,’” Johnson told parliament before the vote, expected at about 2:30pm. Johnson wanted yesterday’s vote to show his intent and prove that he — unlike his predecessor, former British prime minister Theresa May — can get his Brexit deal passed by lawmakers. In fact, it does the opposite and hard-wires the risk of a no-deal Brexit next year,” he said.

By Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday welcomed a joint letter by 161 US representatives that urged US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to support signing a Taiwan-US bilateral trade agreement. With this in mind, we strongly believe you should work toward beginning negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement with Taiwan,” the letter says. It was also endorsed by US representatives Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs; Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services; Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security; and Eddie Bernice Johnson, chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) thanked the US Congress for again demonstrating its strong bipartisan support for Taiwan. Taiwan is glad to deepen its collaborations with the US, she said, adding that the ministry would continue to advance bilateral trade interactions and partnerships, based on firm and positive foundations.

In September, a meme spread on Facebook that falsely claimed robbers were accessing homes by posing as government workers seeking census information. Facebook said it would prohibit ads that “portray census participation as useless or meaningless or advise people not to participate in the census.”Although Facebook exempts politicians’ ads from fact-checking, the company said politicians would not be allowed to run ads or post content that conflicts with its census policies. Posts “earnestly expressing fear about the census,” will be allowed, Facebook officials told reporters, although posts will be monitored for reach and might have context added. Facebook officials declined to comment on particular presentations or meetings. One of the sources cited frustration with the way Facebook handled the home robbers meme in September.

Despite being the second-largest ethnic group in the country, it’s only in recent years that Hakka food and culture have been enjoying a popular revival. They include swanky Tung Hakka, also known as Blossom Restaurant (桐花), which has two locations here, and Gan’s Huofang (甘家伙房) inside the city’s Hakka Cultural Park. On any given night, the tables at May Snow Hakka Food (五月雪客家私房珍釀) in Daan District (大安) are filled with drinking buddies and silver-haired gatherings seeking a hearty and reliable dinner. The common image of Hakka food is that of oil-slicked and heavily-salted dishes. May Snow prides itself on much lighter versions of Hakka dishes, and when I visited, that proved largely true while not sacrificing on quality.

Staff Writer, with CNATwelve hotels, some with five stars, have been fined for failing to meet food safety standards, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said. The FDA tested 116 food products at 58 hotels between April and July to confirm if their food services were in compliance with the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) and Good Hygiene Practices management systems. The suppliers of the food items were each fined NT$30,000, the FDA added. The agency said it found expired food at seven hotels, including the Ambassador Hotel Taipei, Regent Taipei and Grand Hotel Taipei, resulting in fines of between NT$60,000 and NT$300,000. The expired food items were mostly dried goods, which are easily overlooked as they have long expiry dates, FDA official Chou Pei-ju (周珮如) said.