■ TRANSPORTATION
Cable car breaks down again
The Maokong Cable Car system was shut down for almost an hour and a half after a circuit board malfunctioned at the Taipei Zoo Station yesterday afternoon. The incident renewed safety concerns because the system had been closed on Monday for weekly maintenance. Yesterday's malfunction occurred about 3pm -- after a thundershower caused a temporary shut down at 1:05pm. The Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said its engineers were trying to determine if the storm and circuit board malfunction were connected. Service resumed at 4:30pm after workers replaced the circuit board. In response to questions about the system's safety, TRTC division chief Huang Chiang-chang (黃建昌) said Monday's maintenance work did not cover the circuit board. "We can't check everything in one day, but we are confident about the system's stability after a few weeks of regular checkups," Huang said. Meanwhile, a survey released by the Taipei City Government revealed that just 14 percent of residents were satisfied with the operation of the cable car system.
■ DIPLOMACY
Chen to visit Honduras
Simon Ko (柯森耀), director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of Central and South American Affairs, said yesterday that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will visit allies in Central America later this month and attend a summit in Honduras on Aug. 20. Ko said the ministry had sent out invitations to the presidents of Taiwan's seven allies in the region to the summit. Ko said that Chen does not plan to visit Suriname, which is reportedly keen to improve diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but that a stop in new ally St. Lucia was still being mulled.
■ SPORTS
IWGA chief arrives
Ron Froehlich, president of the International World Games Association (IWGA), arrived at Kaohsiung to attend preparatory meetings for the 2009 World Games yesterday. Kaohsiung City Government officials said that Froehlich was scheduled to help unveil a countdown signboard for the world games with Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) today. Chen said the construction of the main stadium was on schedule and that the city government had asked contractors for the Kaohsiung Arena to make up for the delays in their building schedule. She said her appeal of the annulment of last December's mayoral election result will not influence the city's preparation for the games because the city is bound by an agreement with the IWGA.
■ ECONOMY
Food price index stable
The food price index did not rise noticeably in the first half of the year in comparison with price indexes in Japan, South Korea, Singapore and the US, a report released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) on Monday showed. The report showed that average price index for food from January to June dropped about 1 percent compared with the previous year's index. The drop has been attributed mainly to the falling prices of fruits and vegetables, which dropped 10.5 percent and 2.5 percent respectively. The DGBAS said that price buoyancy in other countries was largely due to rising prices on the international market. The price index showed a rise of 0.5 percent for grain products, 1.6 percent for diary products and 3.1 percent for edible oils, which are relatively low compared to increases in other countries, the DGBAS report said.
■ ARTS AND CULTURES
Hou knows kung fu
Cannes winner Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢), best known for his art-house movies, is about to try his hand at kung fu cinema. Hou plans to start shooting the martial arts film starring Shu Qi later this year, a spokeswoman for one of the investors said. The spokeswoman added that the script was still being written and that the movie's budget hadn't been decided. She said the Taiwan branch of Hollywood studio Fox had also invested in the movie. The new kung fu movie marks a departure from Hou's examinations of Taiwanese culture. The director has shot movies about a local puppeteer (The Puppetmaster), southern Taiwan's gang culture (Goodbye South, Goodbye) and government oppression (City of Sadness). The Puppetmaster won the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993 and City of Sadness won the top Golden Lion prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1989.
■ BANKING
New rules on credit
The central bank yesterday said it had amended regulations on how banks can handle applications by foreigners seeking credit. Under the new regulations, foreign nationals over the age of 20 are no longer required to have a residence permit to apply for a credit card. Huang A-wang (黃阿旺), a central bank official, said that this put the regulations more in line with those applying to Taiwanese, who must also be 20 years old before a bank will issue a credit card in their name. Huang said the change was made after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in January it would allow foreign diplomats, officials and their dependents to apply for credit cards without requiring a residence permit.
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