NATIONAL DEFENSE
US Navy plane in flyby
A US Navy signals reconnaissance aircraft early yesterday flew within 12 nautical miles (22.2km) of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) in Pingtung County, the Twitter-based military news outlet Aircraft Spots reported. The plane reportedly took off from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, at 11:50pm on Saturday and flew over the Bashi Channel south of Taiwan. Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General Shih Shun-wen (史順文) said that the military was “fully aware of all sea and air activities around the nation.” The flyby is the second time a US military aircraft has approached the nation’s airspace in the past week. A US Navy Boeing P-8A on Tuesday shadowed the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning, before passing through the Taiwan Strait and landing on Okinawa, the Web-based military news outlet Alert said.
CROSS-STRAIT TIES
Twin-city forum date set
The Taipei City Government yesterday confirmed that the annual Taipei-Shanghai forum is to be held in Shanghai on Thursday next week, and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was expected to attend. Ko is to depart for China the day before and return on Friday next week, the city government said, adding that this year’s forum is to focus on economic, trade, innovation and industrial exchanges.
ENTERTAINMENT
Golden Mask for VR series
The first episode of the animated virtual reality (VR) series Gloomy Eyes (咕魯米的眼睛) on Saturday won the Masque d’Or (Golden Mask) Grand Prize at the NewImages Festival Awards in Paris, France. It was the latest in a string of international awards the three-part series, produced by HTC Vive in collaboration with several international firms, has won since the first episode premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The nine-minute episode, narrated by Irish actor Colin Farrell, was commended by the four-member NewImages Festival jury for its groundbreaking storytelling and immersive perspective. Gloomy Eyes depicts a zombie struggling to find his place in a world fractured by conflict between zombies and humans.
AGRICULTURE
Chickens culled over H5N2
About 27,960 chickens on a Changhua County farm have been culled after the farm was confirmed to be infected with the H5N2 avian influenza virus, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said on Saturday. Samples taken last week from the free-range poultry farm in Fangyuan Township (芳苑) were confirmed to be infected with the virus subtype, the bureau said in a statement. Disinfection and bird flu surveillance and monitoring procedures are being carried out at nearby poultry farms, it added. Poultry farmers are urged to maintain proper ventilation in their facilities and to prevent their birds from coming in contact with wild birds to avoid an escalation of avian flu, the bureau said. Council of Agriculture data showed 26 poultry farms nationwide have had outbreaks of avian flu this year, resulting in the culling of 368,627 birds.
SPORTS
Lin signs with MLB team
Catcher Lyle Lin (林家正) on Saturday signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks, becoming the first Taiwanese player to join a Major League Baseball (MLB) team via the annual draft. Lin, 21, a junior at Arizona State University, said in a Facebook post that the deal was signed at the D-Backs spring training base in Phoenix and he would joining the D-Backs minor league team in its current season.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
NEW DESTINATIONS: Marketing campaigns to attract foreign travelers have to change from the usual promotions about Alishan and Taroko Gorge, the transport minister said The number of international tourists visiting Taiwan is estimated to top 8 million by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday, adding that the ministry has not changed its goal of attracting 10 million foreign travelers this year. Chen made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief lawmakers about the ministry’s plan to boost foreign visitor arrivals. Last month, Chen told the committee that the nation might attract only 7.5 million tourists from overseas this year and that when the ministry sets next year’s goal, it would not include