The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday the dust storm that had been predicted to bring dust levels of between six and 10 times the normal level nationwide was a false alarm.
Reports of the dust cloud by local media over the weekend caused much public concern.
Still, dust levels were indeed higher than normal at four to six times the norm, said Wang Jiunn-iuan (
He said airborne pollutants hit their peak in density yesterday and should subside after today.
Since the cold front that moved in from China was not as severe as the Central Weather Bureau had forecast and given difficulties in predicting wind directions and intensity in spring, estimates of the dust level were too high, Wang said.
Wang also rebutted media reports that it had said the dust cloud would carry high levels of toxic dioxins.
"In the past three days we have detected dust levels that were two to three times the normal level on Taiwan proper, and four to six times on [outlying] islands such as Kinmen and Matsu," he said.
The southbound wind had begun to affect southern Taiwan yesterday, Wang said, adding that the highest level of dust was detected in Tainan at about six times the normal level.
Asked where the dust forecast to hit Taiwan winded up, Wang said some of the pollutants might have been carried by the wind to Japan.
"Okinawa, a Japanese prefecture that consist of hundreds of islands in the Pacific Ocean, is one of the places that has received the greatest concentration of dust," he said.
The EPA will continue to monitor dust levels throughout the nation, Wang said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
RSS