CULTURE
Local architecture honored
The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, also known as Weiwuying, was among six architectural works in Taiwan selected for this year’s International Architecture Awards, organized by the Chicago Athenaeum and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. The awards, which are in their 15th edition, honored 130 buildings and urban planning projects from 38 countries. Completed in 2108, Weiwuying was designed by Dutch architect Francine Houben and her firm Mecanoo, who was inspired by the many banyan trees in the area to create the center, which holds four performance halls under its roof and a large outdoor amphitheater. Other buildings in Taiwan recognized this year include Siafu Activity Center in New Taipei City, by IMO Architecture & Design, which was completed in 2017 and features a temple-style curved roof and hundreds of colorful columns; the JCA Living Lab in Taipei, a nearly century-old house built during the Japanese colonial period, which was renovated by JC architecture. Chain10 Architecture & Interior Design Institute won for three projects, two in Kaoshiung and one in Taitung: a private home built near the Agongdian Reservoir (阿公店水庫), the Green Isle restaurant in Kaohsiung, completed last year, and the Gasea cliff house, which was completed in 2017.
TRAVEL
Warning over pork imports
The Central Emergency Operation Center for African Swine Fever said that it would begin screening the luggage of all arrivals from Germany, after the country reported its first case of the disease on Thursday. Anyone found to have brought products containing pork into Taiwan from Germany would be fined, the center said. First-time offenders will be fined NT$200,000 (US$6,778), with the penalty increasing to NT$1 million for repeat offenses, it said. If foreign nationals are unable to pay the fine, they would be denied entry to Taiwan, it added. The German case indicates that the disease is spreading in Europe, the center said, reminding people not to bring pork products into Taiwan or have them shipped here.
AGRICULTURE
Garlic vendors investigated
Two garlic vendors in Yunlin County are being investigated for alleged price gauging and hoarding, officials said on Saturday. About 136 tonnes of garlic were found in a warehouse when the Investigation Bureau’s Yunlin County Field Office and the county’s Agriculture Department conducted a check of the vendors’ operations on Friday, investigators said. One of the vendors, surnamed Lin (林), said 53 tonnes were stored to supply contract farmers, while the rest was intended for general sales, the field office said. The average wholesale price of garlic posted by Siluo Agricultural Marketing Corp in Yunlin rose from NT$161.2 per kilogram on Jan. 1 to NT$396.7 per kilogram on Friday. A local farmers’ association official said the sharp rise has been caused by interruptions in imports.
TECHNOLOGY
NASA registration open
Registration for the ninth annual NASA Space Apps Challenge Hackathon, to be held in Taipei, is open through Friday, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said. It will be the fourth such event held in Taipei, although this year’s event would be held virtually. The Taipei leg from Oct. 2 to 4 is co-hosted by the National Space Organization, the Taipei City Government, National Taiwan University, Jothon Online and the American Innovation Center, the AIT said on Thursday.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
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