ENVIRONMENT
‘Green market’ planned
Environmentally minded organizations are setting up a “green market” of 60 booths over the weekend to encourage sustainable consumption ahead of Earth Day. Visitors to the two-day market will be able to purchase organic food products and meet the local farmers who grew them, while eco-artists will show how to make household goods using recycled materials, according to the Taiwan Environmental Information Association. The event at the Nanmen Park campus of National Taiwan Museum will also include discussions and activities to brainstorm better methods of development, especially in terms of construction, energy use and transportation, the organizer said. The market is just one event in a larger campaign for this year’s Earth Day theme of green cities, which will run through early June and is expected to involve 15,000 participants, it added. Earth Day falls on Tuesday next week.
EMPLOYMENT
Job-matching service lauded
An online job-matching platform being promoted by the National Immigration Agency for employers and new immigrants has effectively addressed the shortage of workers in rural areas, National Immigration Agency Director-General Hsieh Li-kung (謝立功) said. The new service is an extension of previous services the agency began offering in rural areas in 2010, including sending representatives into less populated regions to help new immigrants extend their visas or collect certificates. As part of the new service, the agency has teamed up with a human resources company to set up a Web site that helps new immigrants find employment. The site has received 178,357 visits and helped 4,933 immigrants connect with 3,701 jobs, representing a success rate of 75.02 percent, Hsieh said.
COAST GUARD
New ship launched
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) launched a 3,000-tonne patrol and rescue vessel in Kaohsiung yesterday. The Kaohsiung (CG-129) entered the water in a ceremony at the Jong Shyn Shipbuilding Co shipyard. It is the second 3,000-tonne coast guard vessel launched recently. The Yilan, launched in January, is scheduled to begin service in June after extensive sea trials. CGA Deputy Minister Yu Ming-hsi (尤明錫) said the Kaohsiung is expected to begin service in November, after trials. It is to patrol waters to the south of the nation, including the South China Sea, to protect Taiwanese fishermen operating in the region, Yu said. The Yilan and Kaohsiung are the coast guard’s largest ships. They are 119m long, 15.2m wide and 8.2m tall.
TECHNOLOGY
Leaked HTC pic spurs arrest
A local man has been arrested and referred for possible prosecution in relation to a leaked image of HTC Corp’s new flagship smartphone — the One M8 — a month before its March 25 debut, police said yesterday. Police launched an investigation into the case in February after receiving a report from HTC, which discovered photos of the new phone on the Mobile01 Web site. Police later traced the photos to a 35-year-old New Taipei City resident who allegedly posted the pictures on the site without the company’s authorization. A computer and mobile phone containing the photos were seized from the suspect’s home during a raid on Tuesday, police said. The man is under investigation for allegedly violating the Copyright Act (著作權法) and the Trade Secrets Act (營業秘密法). The latter carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to NT$10 million (US$331,240).
EDUCATION
Chinese degree pool widened
The Ministry of Education announced yesterday that it now recognizes diplomas issued by 18 more Chinese institutions of higher education, bringing the total number of recognized schools to 129. The new additions cover 15 specialized colleges, as well as three research institutes: the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The nation’s policy recognizes diplomas issued on or after Sept. 3, 2010, by designated schools in China. For Taiwanese citizens who obtained diplomas from now-recognized Chinese institutions before that date, but after 1992, an examination is required to certify academic qualifications.
ENVIRONMENT
Rapture of the raptors
Today is to mark the beginning of a series of events centered on birds of prey to coincide with the peak of their migration season, offering a rare look at gray-faced buzzards and Chinese sparrowhawks. Among the events will be guided birdwatching tours in the North Coast and Guanyinshan National Scenic Area on today, tomorrow and April 27, as well as on May 4, the Tourism Bureau said. Peak raptor migration season begins after the spring equinox later this month, when frequent rainfall forces them to land or fly low, making it a good opportunity for bird watchers, the bureau said. The season is likely to last into May, according to the Taipei-based Chinese Wild Bird Federation, which said that Guanyinshan (觀音山) in New Taipei City, Baguashan (八卦山) in Changhua County and of Kenting (墾丁) in Pingtung County are among the best places to see aerial predators.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,