Temblor felt in Taipei
A magnitude 5.2 earthquake hit northern Taiwan at 12:45pm yesterday, causing slight shaking in and around Taipei. The quake’s center was located 4.8km east of Taipei City Hall at a depth of 142.6km, according to the Central Weather Bureau. The strongest shaking with an intensity of two was felt in New Taipei City (新北市) and Yilan County’s Sansing Township (三星). Earthquakes frequently rattle Taiwan, but most are minor and cause little or no damage. However, a 7.6-magnitude temblor in central Taiwan in 1999 killed more than 2,300 people. In 2006, a 6.7 magnitude earthquake south of Kaohsiung severed undersea cables and disrupted telephone and Internet services to millions throughout Asia.
Mobile app maker unveiled
A new software solution created by the Institute for Information Industry can help people develop mobile applications in a more efficient and cost-saving way, the developers said yesterday. The application is named AppCross. Using the solution, content providers can save an average of 60 percent in development time and 80 percent in development costs, a senior engineer surnamed Chien (簡) said at the institute. As long as the content is in the format of Adobe InDesign, there is no need to hire or contract extra programmers to develop an app, he said, adding there are15 templates and that animation arrangements and interactive features can all be customized to the developer’s needs. The institute is hoping to license the software solution to corporate clients and has already marketed it to Cite Media Holding Group, Transmission Books and Microinfo, Sanlih E-Television and others, Chien said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods