■ FOOD
Meat found in vegetarian food
The Investigation Bureau recently found that some processed foods advertised as vegetarian contained meat and said it would refer producers who knowingly added meat to their products for prosecution on fraud charges. Pu Chang-en (蒲長恩), a technician at the bureau’s Department of Forensic Science, said yesterday that among samples collected from 31 vegetarian food vendors in Taipei City and County for safety checks, food taken from 17 vendors contained meat. An investigation targeting the producers of the processed food was launched to determine whether meat was deliberately added to the soybean-based products to enrich their texture and flavor. Fu said it was possible that vegetarian food showing small traces of meat was contaminated by poorly cleaned work tables or cooking equipment in factories where meat products are also processed. Producers who have not deliberately defrauded consumers would not be subject to prosecution, Fu said.
■ NATURE
Liao roots for Yushan
Minister of the Interior Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) told a rally organized by the National Park Association of Taiwan in Taipei yesterday that everyone — regardless of their nationality — should vote for Yushan (玉山) to help it become one of the new seven wonders of nature. At 3,952m, Yushan is the highest mountain in Taiwan. After a nomination process in which 500,000 people from 224 countries voted, Yushan became one of the 77 candidate sites competing to become one of the 21 finalists. For the past 14 weeks, Yushan has been No. 1 in the mountains category. Voting will end on July 7, whereupon a panel of judges will choose the new seven wonders of nature among the 21 finalists.
■ SOCIETY
Taipei seeks makeovers
In its bid to make itself more attractive, Taipei City will offer more generous incentives to building owners — especially high-rise buildings — who want to give the structures a facelift. Hoping to improve the city’s appearance ahead of the 2010 Taipei International Flora Expo, the city government recently increased the subsidy it provides for renovating an old building’s exterior to 75 percent of the total cost, from 33 percent. The Taipei International Flora Expo, which will be held from Nov. 6 next year, through April 24, 2011, at four venues in Taipei is aimed at showcasing Taiwan’s technical strength in the horticulture industry, its ability to organize major events and its capacity to generate economic activity. Some 6 million people from Taiwan and abroad are expected to attend. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday the city had subsidized 33 percent of the cost of renovating olds building since 2006. To date, 30 projects benefiting from the incentive program have been completed, he said.
■ SOCIETY
Teens hooked in TV, Web
The nation’s teenagers remain addicted to TV and the Internet on weekends, a survey showed yesterday. The poll conducted by the King Car Education Foundation on 2,418 teenagers in April showed that 96.33 percent of respondents usually watched TV on the weekend, with 36.54 percent spending between two and four hours in front of the tube. More than 95 percent of children said they surfed the Internet on the weekend, with the majority spending a maximum of two hours online. Almost 15 percent said they stayed online for a minimum of six hours during the weekend, the survey found.
REPORT: Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining loitering munitions matching the AeroVironment Switchblade 300 or the Anduril Altius-600, ‘Foreign Policy’ said Taiwan is seeking US-made kamikaze drones in an apparent concession to pressure from Washington to focus on asymmetric capabilities to defeat or deter a Chinese attack, Foreign Policy said in a report on Wednesday. Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining AeroVironment Switchblade loitering munitions or other devices with similar capabilities, it said, citing four sources familiar with the matter commenting on condition of anonymity. The Switchblade 300 is a tube-launched drone designed for attacking ground troops, while its larger sibling, the Switchblade 600, could be used to destroy tanks and entrenched troops. Ukraine has utilized both systems extensively in its fight against
Police officers yesterday morning apprehended the prime suspect of a triple homicide case, after raiding the suspect’s hideout in Taichung. They transported the suspect to New Taipei City for questioning and recorded his statement last night. The suspect, identified as a 24-year-old man surnamed Chang (張), is believed to have used his hands to strangle his wife, surnamed Chen (陳), 29, along with his three-year-old son from a previous marriage and his wife’s mother, 69. The three dead bodies were wrapped in blankets when they were discovered inside their apartment in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) on Saturday. Chang was holding a
Hungarian Member of Parliament Tompos Marton said he considers Taiwan to be a better alternative to China as a strategic partner. Marton, who is the vice president of the opposition Momentum Party, made the remarks in an interview with the Central News Agency on Sunday. He draped a Republic of China flag across his shoulders to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the capital city, Budapest, on Thursday last week, and openly voiced support for Taiwan on social media. He said in the interview that he wanted to remind the world that there were alternatives to China, and that “Taiwan has
A female physician at New Taipei City’s Shuang Ho Hospital was bullied and made to work for 32 consecutive hours by a senior colleague while pregnant before later having a miscarriage, an internal investigation found, the hospital said on Monday. The perpetrator has been removed from his post, the hospital said. The attending physician in the hospital’s Medical Imaging Department, identified by the pseudonym Y, earlier on Monday told reporters that she had been bullied by a male senior colleague who arranged shifts in her department. In January, shortly after she became pregnant, Y asked the department director if she could avoid overnight