MEDIA
Publisher scoops awards
The CommonWealth Magazine Group was the biggest winner at this year’s Golden Tripod Awards for Publications, capturing six awards in five of the 22 categories. Now in its 39th year, the awards are the most prestigious in the nation’s publishing industry. More than 1,400 entries were submitted this year, the Ministry of Culture said. The CommonWealth group won the top prizes for best digital innovation, best financial magazine, best education and learning magazine, and best photography. It also shared the top spots in the best children’s and young adult book categories. INK Literary Monthly and its publishing company were also successful, with four awards — best arts and humanities magazine, best columns and commentary, and two best literature book awards.
FOOD & BEVERAGE
Fair showcases NZ produce
A two-day food festival promoting New Zealand produce, such as dairy products and wine, opened yesterday with the aim of connecting local buyers and sellers. The first of its kind, the festival is hosting 20 local food importers touting New Zealand food as natural, premium and contamination-free at a time when food safety has become a huge concern for Taiwanese in wake of several scandals. New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office in Taipei Director Si’alei van Toor said a bilateral economic agreement in 2013 has created even more opportunities for her nation to introduce its food. Since both sides signed the agreement between New Zealand and the separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu on Economic Cooperation, tariffs on most of New Zealand’s exports to Taiwan have been reduced or eliminated, “giving New Zealand products a preferential price point,” she said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
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