WEATHER
Tropical storm approaching
Sea and land warnings are expected to be issued tomorrow and Wednesday as Tropical Storm Talim makes its way toward Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Talim, this year’s 18th tropical storm over the Pacific, was yesterday about 2,310km from Taiwan’s southernmost tip, Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and moving west-northwest toward the Bashi Channel at 25km per hour, the bureau said. If it continues on its current path, Talim will likely affect the weather starting on Wednesday and a sea warning could be issued tomorrow, followed by a land warning tomorrow or Wednesday, bureau forecaster Yen Tseng-hsi (顏增璽) said, urging the public to take precautions. Chances are high that the storm could strengthen into a typhoon and its effects on Taiwan would depend on whether it veers north, he said.
ARTS AND CULTURE
Taiwanese VR wins in Venice
A virtual reality (VR) work created by a Taiwanese professor and a US artist has won an award at the 74th Venice Film Festival. La Camera Insabbiata, an installation that allows viewers to lose themselves in a fully interactive and immersive animation journey, was awarded the prize On Saturday for the Best VR Experience. The VR installation was created by Huang Hsin-chien (黃心健), an art professor at National Chengchi University’s College of Communication, and US singer-songwriter Laurie Anderson, according to a statement released yesterday by the university. It was a difficult process for Huang, because his father was in a hospital intensive care unit during the production period and died one day after Huang returned to Taiwan from the US, the university said.
CITIZENSHIP
French priest naturalized
French Catholic priest Father Maurice Poinsot was granted Republic of China citizenship yesterday without having to give up citizenship of his home country and said he would like to be buried in Hualien County’s Yuli Township (玉里), where he has worked for most of his 58 years in Taiwan. Poinsot, 85, was presented with a national identity card, household registration certificate and permanent residency card at a ceremony at Yuli’s Church of Our Lady of Lourdes. Poinsot began missionary work in Yuli when he was 27 years old, Hualien County Government Civil Affairs Department head Hsiao Ming-chia (蕭明甲) said, adding that he had become fluent in local languages, including Mandarin, Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), Hakka and the language of the Amis people, and had assimilated into local society. Poinsot is also the coauthor of an Amis-French dictionary, which has helped other missionaries learn the Amis language and remains an important reference, Hsiao said.
ROADS
Falling rocks injure two
Two people were on Saturday injured by falling rocks as they were driving along Provincial Highway No. 8 in Hualien, the Sincheng Police Precinct said. A 35-year-old Japanese man named Hiroyuki Shirai, who was riding a bicycle, sustained head injuries with heavy bleeding and was rushed to the nearby Hualien Armed Forces General Hospital, police said. A Taiwanese woman was riding a scooter when she was struck by falling rocks near Hualien’s Tunnel of Nine Turns, police said, adding that she sustained minor abrasions to her right shoulder. The bruises were treated on-site and she was later taken to Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital for further checks, police said.
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