Taiwan was named the only country in Asia with an open civic space for a fourth consecutive year by the Civicus report, as it consistently shows authorities are tolerant of criticism from civil society groups, which are able to form and operate freely

Temples in Penghu County made traditional 'rice bag turtles' in preparation for the 'Ciguei' ceremony held on the islands for the Lantern Festival, which this year falls on 12 February

A mechanism had been set up to facilitate interdepartmental efforts to enable the detention of vessels suspected of sabotage acts in coastal waters, authorities stated, following incident at sea earlier this month

Free single-use toiletries are banned in hotels from today 1 January 2025, for obvious environmental reasons; the move is expected to impact over 14.000 hotel operators on top of the relative supply chain