Poppy seed, a popular flavoring for bagels made in US bakeries, has been judged to be an "illegal drug" by the Taiwan High Court. \nAn owner of a bagel shop in Taipei has been found guilty of importing opium poppy seeds and was handed a three-month suspended sentence for her crime. The store in question is the Marco Polo Bakery, located on Chungching South Road, Taipei. \nThe High Court, reversing a not-guilty verdict already given by a lower court, convicted Chuo Liu Ching-ti (卓劉慶弟) in accordance with the Drugs Hazard Prevention Act, which outlaws the possession of opium poppies and seeds. \nThe court found that Chuo, age 66, had purchased over 22kg of the poppy seeds in January last year from US-based Valente Yeast through a friend residing in the US. Chuo said bakers employed at her shop had requested the seeds in response to demand from customers. \nThe customs officials, who informed law enforcement officials of the import, told the court that the import documentation for the shipment described the contents as "poppy seed." \nAccording to the court, investigating agents allowed the packages to be delivered to their destination, and subsequently raided the bagel shop following delivery. \nIn defense, Chuo contended that there are over 500 species of poppy plant and that she did not know the poppy seed in question was derived from Papaver somniferum, a type of opium poppy. \nShe further said that the US-based supplier had told her that poppy-flavored bagels are very popular in US, second only to plain bagels and sesame-flavored bagels. \nThe Taipei District Court previously determined in January that Chuo was not guilty because she did not know the imported seed came from a kind of opium poppy banned in Taiwan. \nHowever, the High Court dismissed the not-guilty decision on the grounds that it was not justifiable for a bakery owner not to know what opium poppy seeds look like -- because they are so widely used by bakeries.
SOLVED: Domestic orders have already overtaken the total sold to China last year, while the Canadian and US representative offices posted messages of support A joint effort by groups and individuals in Taiwan and abroad to prop up sales of pineapples after China announced a ban on imports of the fruit succeeded in just four days, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday. China on Friday announced that it would suspend imports of Taiwanese pineapples starting on Monday, citing biosafety concerns. Following the announcement, the council urged the public to assist farmers by purchasing pineapples, saying it hoped to sell 20,000 tonnes of the fruit domestically and 30,000 tonnes in exports. “Domestic orders have already surpassed the total sold to China last year,” COA Minister
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Taiwanese netizens and politicians yesterday mocked a Chinese plan to build a transportation network linking Beijing and Taipei, calling it “science fiction” and “daydreaming.” Their comments were in reaction to the Chinese State Council’s release last week of its “Guidelines on the National Comprehensive Transportation Network Plan,” which include several proposed transportation links, with one map showing a line running from China’s Jingjinji Metropolitan Region (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei) across the Taiwan Strait to Taipei. “This is the Chinese leadership daydreaming again of [fulfilling its] fantasy of extending China’s transportation network to Taiwan. I suggest people regard it as science fiction,” Democratic Progressive
‘ONE PERSON PER UNIT’: People undergoing home isolation cannot stay in a housing unit in which non-isolated people live, unless they have special approval Starting tomorrow, people under home isolation would be required to follow the “one person per housing unit” rule if in private housing, or stay at a quarantine hotel or centralized quarantine facility, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the rules require people under home quarantine to be quarantined with one person per housing unit, or at a quarantine hotel or centralized quarantine facility. “Starting on March 1, individuals under home isolation will also be subject to the ‘one person per housing unit’ rule,” he said. “We
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