POLITICS
Protest amendment finalized
The Cabinet finalized a draft amendment yesterday that exempts outdoor rallies of an urgent or incidental nature from requiring advance permission from the authorities. The draft amendment to the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) is now to be submitted to the Legislative Yuan for approval. The change was proposed based on a ruling issued by the Council of Grand Justices in March, which said that the current requirement violated the constitutionally protected freedom of assembly and would therefore be struck down on Jan. 1 next year. According to the draft, the organizers of urgent rallies will only need to notify police of their plan in advance, while incidental cases, which are initiated spontaneously by protesters and do not have a specific organizer, will not need to do that. The draft stipulates that urgent or incidental rallies cannot be held on main thoroughfares, except when such assemblies do not disrupt traffic. There cannot be more than one such rally at any one site or at the same time as other rallies, it states.
SOCIETY
Train strikes, kills man
A man who was struck and killed by a Puyuma Express train in Keelung yesterday afternoon had apparently trespassed onto the tracks, the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) said. The incident occurred near Nuannuan Station at 2:41pm. Police said they were still trying to identify the man. Regular railway operations resumed by 3:39 pm, but the delay already affected 10 trains and 3,015 passengers, the railway agency said. It said the driver had not been able to stop in time. Passengers on the northbound No. 417 were transferred to a commuter train. Just two days earlier, another Puyuma Express heading to Taipei from eastern Taiwan had one of its windows shattered on the same stretch of track by construction equipment.
ENTERTAINMENT
‘The Heirs’ star to visit
Fans of the popular South Korean TV drama The Heirs might get a chance to see costar Park Shin-hye next month as she is expected to visit Taipei on the second leg of her Asian tour, her agency said. Park is scheduled to meet fans on Sept. 14 in Taipei’s Xinyi District, where she is expected to perform songs from the drama and offer fans some customized surprises, S.A.L.T. Entertainment said. She will visit Thailand later in September and Singapore in October on a tour dubbed 2014 Story of Angel. The tour began in China, where the 24-year-old actress met with fans in Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Changsha and Beijing. Park has 6.5 million followers on Sina Weibo.
COMMUNICATIONS
No. 1 in smartphone use
The use of smartphones for Internet connections is more extensive in Taiwan than in any other nation, consumer survey released by Yahoo on Wednesday found. The survey of 32 countries, conducted by Yahoo and the research agency Millward Brown, showed that Taiwanese spend an average 197 minutes per day online on their smartphones, while the global average is 142 minutes. According to Yahoo, 50 percent of people in Taiwan own a smart handheld device that is used to check e-mail, read news, share photographs and search for information. It said this trend indicates great potential for development of and business opportunities in the nation’s mobile market. About 9 million people in Taiwan connected to Yahoo’s services via a mobile device in June, nearly double the number in January last year, the company’s data shows.
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
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
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