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.
‘FREEDOM WINE’: Taiwanese are empathetic of Australians, the president said, while lawmakers called on their constituents to drink Australian wine to show their support Taiwan would take action to back Australians at a time when they are “under tremendous pressure,” President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, as tensions between Australia and China heated up. Taipei and Canberra have been mutually supportive in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in exchanging critical medical materials in the early stages, Tsai said, before chairing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Central Standing Committee meeting in Taipei. Taiwan and Australia are like-minded nations, sharing the common values of democracy, freedom and human rights, while their economic and trade relations have also become close, she said. Canberra has been voicing support for Taiwan’s international
VIGILANCE: From tomorrow all arrivals must provide the result of a PCR test issued within three days of boarding, and the CECC asked people to report anyone who has faked their result The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) expects an increase in the number of returning travelers in the coming days, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday, adding that the varying qualities of COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test reports from other countries is a big concern. Chen, who heads the center, was speaking to the media on the sidelines of a Taiwan Foundation for Rare Disorders scholarship award ceremony in Taipei. “As the global COVID-19 situation is worsening, and with some holidays coming up, there might be an increase in the number of overseas Taiwanese returning to Taiwan,” he
CECC RULES: The autumn-winter COVID-19 prevention program, including mandatory mask wearing in eight types of public venues and indoor facilities, begins today A temporary, two-week ban on Indonesian migrant workers entering the nation is to begin on Friday, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced yesterday as it reported 24 new imported cases of COVID-19. Twenty of the new cases are Indonesian migrant workers who arrived between Nov. 11 and Friday last week, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center. The cases were discovered during a special project on Friday to conduct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on all 939 recently arrived Indonesian migrant workers in centralized quarantine facilities, as the majority of imported cases in the past
Passports with a redesigned cover highlighting Taiwan would be issued starting on Jan. 11, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The new cover design, which was announced on Sept. 2, highlights Taiwan by printing the word in a larger font. While the new passport cover retains “the Republic of China” in Chinese, the English name is printed along the outer circle of the national emblem, which would enable other nations to clearly identify that it is a Taiwanese passport, not a Chinese passport, the ministry said. The costs and application procedures for the new version are the same as
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