TRANSPORTATION
Monthly pass price mulled
Before April next year, a joint monthly pass is to be introduced for unlimited rides on the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system and buses in Taipei and New Taipei City. The pass is to also give passengers 30 minutes of free use of a YouBike within an hour of taking an MRT or bus journey, Taipei City Government Secretary-General Chang Jer-yang (張哲揚) said. The original purpose of the YouBike system was to help people get to their first transit point or to their final destination, Chang added. The price of the 30-day pass is still being negotiated and would be set by the end of the year, most likely at less than NT$2,000, Taipei Department of Transport Acting Director-General Chen Hsueh-tai (陳學台) said.
WEATHER
Winds bring air pollutants
Temperatures across the west of the nation early yesterday fell to about 20?C with the arrival of stronger northeasterly winds that also brought air pollutants, the Central Weather Bureau said. As of noon yesterday, the Air Quality Index was red in Kinmen County, and orange in Mailiao County, Yunlin’s Taisi Township (台西), Kaohsiung’s Zuoying (左營) and Matsu, the Environmental Protection Administration’s Taiwan Air Quality Monitoring Network said. Elsewhere, the index was either green or yellow, indicating good to fair air quality, the network said. Under the index, red means the air quality is unhealthy for everyone, while orange indicates it is dangerous for sensitive groups, such as young children, the elderly and people with chronic diseases. The winds are likely to affect the temperature until today. From tomorrow, it is expected to become warmer for a couple of days, the bureau said, but another wave of winds is due to arrive on Friday, causing temperatures to fall and bringing showers.
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