HEALTH
Fruit and veggies destroyed
A total of 1.5 tonnes of fruit and vegetables found to contain an illegal amount of pesticide residue have been destroyed, the Hualien County Health Bureau said yesterday. Twelve lots of fruit and vegetables containing excessive pesticide levels that were being sold in supermarkets, restaurants, warehouse stores and other shops have been destroyed, Hualien County Health Bureau Director Hsu Hsiang-ming (徐祥明) said. Hsu said inspections of fruit and vegetables were conducted between January and last month in Hualien, following complaints made by environmental and consumer protection groups that a lot of produce being sold nationwide contains high levels of pesticides. In addition to the bureau’s checks on 202 items, Hsu said the Fruit and Vegetables Cooperative Society was also assisting in efforts to enhance inspections of pesticide levels in produce being sold at wholesale markets.
WEATHER
Heavy rains relieve drought
The torrential rainfall over the past week has relieved the strain on reservoirs in southern Taiwan caused by a months-long drought and water supplies throughout the country will remain stable until late June, according to the Water Resources Agency. Wu Yueh-hsi (吳約西), the agency’s deputy director, said that although most of the recent downpours were concentrated on coastal areas, they helped increase the water level in the Wushantou Reservoir in Greater Tainan to 88 percent of capacity. Meanwhile, capacity at the Zengwun Reservoir in Chiayi and at the Nanhua Reservoir in Greater Tainan has reached 20.7 percent and 50 percent, respectively, he added. Water supplies will remain stable until the end of June and there will be enough water for irrigation for the year’s first rice crop, Wu said.
SOCIETY
Punishment wrong: school
Chung Ho Junior High School officials in New Taipei City (新北市) yesterday acknowledged the improper handling of a student who farted in class. The Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday reported that a teacher at the school last week disciplined a third-year student by making him transcribe a textbook and made public the student’s name to his classmates after he farted several times in class due to an upset stomach. To maintain order, the teacher implemented a violation-point system, in which students were made to mark down every “irregularity” committed by their peers, the report said. As the student was among the top five in points received, in particular for spinning his pen and farting, the teacher announced his name to his classmates, along with his “offenses.” School General Affairs Office director Yu Chi-jung (余啟榮) yesterday said the student was actually punished for spinning his pen and chatting in class, not farting. However, Yu said the revelation of the student’s name was improper, saying the school would demand the removal of the point system and refer the teacher to the teachers’ evaluation committee.
CRIME
Illegal loggers arrested
Police in Nantou County yesterday arrested four men suspected of illegally sawing a burl from a Taiwanese red cypress tree in Jhushan Township (竹山) in November last year. The four were detained and turned over to the Nantou District Prosecutors’ Office for allegedly violating the Forestry Act (森林法). Police officers also recovered the 60cm by 100cm burl that was cut from the nearly 2,000-year-old tree. Jhushan residents noticed last November that the 1,000-year-old burl had been removed by illegal loggers and reported the case.
LABOR
Measure for raises mulled
The government would seek to encourage employers to raise worker salaries, either through legislation or an incentive program, Council of Labor Affairs Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) said yesterday amid mounting complaints about stagnant wages and rising living costs. Wang said the government’s goal is to push businesses to fulfil their social responsibilities, including protecting the benefits of their workers. Chinese National Federation of Industries chairman Rock Hsu (許勝雄) said that the government should not “go beyond its duties” and meddle in the issue of whether businesses should adjust their payscales. Hsu said businesses have the responsibility to take care of their workers, but there should not be any compulsory measures to require them to raise pay for workers, because “every company operates differently and faces different competition.”
TRAVEL
Philippines detains man
A Taiwanese man, surnamed Shen (沈), was detained in the Philippines on suspicion of bringing drugs into the country, the Philippine Bureau of Immigration said yesterday. The bureau said Shen appeared suspicious when he arrived in Manila on Thursday last week and immigration officers found about 6g of drugs in his luggage. According to the Taiwanese representative office in Manila, the pills Shen was carrying are prescription sedatives in Taiwan, but are listed as controlled drugs in the Philippines. Shen, who said he was visiting as a tourist, would be released on bail if he obtains a certificate from a Taiwanese doctor proving the drugs are for medical use, the office said. Otherwise, he would be deported and listed as persona non grata, the office added.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods