FOOD SAFETY
Tainted sprouts seized
More than 2 tonnes of tainted bean sprouts have been seized from two factories in New Taipei City and destroyed because they were found to contain traces of an unapproved chemical additive, the city’s Department of Health said on Friday. A total of 2,193.6kg of bean sprouts were seized from two factories operating in the city’s Taishan (泰山) and Wugu (五股) districts during an inspection carried out by health authorities. The health department said samples taken from the Taishan factory were found to contain 0.036g of sodium sulfite per kilogram of bean sprouts, while samples from Wugu had 0.04g/kg of the substance. Although the chemical preservative is sometimes used by manufacturers to prevent food from discoloring, it is banned in bean sprouts. The companies could face fines of between NT$30,000 and NT$3 million (US$990 and US$99,003) for violating the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法).
FINANCE
Workers struggle with bills
The majority of office workers in Taiwan can hardly make ends meet, with housing being their main expense, a recent survey by online job broker 1111 Job Bank. In the survey, more than 95 percent of office workers said that their salaries were not enough to cover basic living expenses. More than 56 percent of respondents said housing accounted for the largest share of their expenditure, while 27 percent said they spent most of their income on food, and 4.76 percent said entertainment was their biggest expense. To save money, workers said they avoid shopping (76 percent), reduce their electricity consumption (73 percent), go to work by motorcycle (65 percent), stream movies online (57 percent) and avoiding eating out (53 percent). The survey was conducted from July 10 to Thursday with 1,072 job bank members. It had a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
IMMIGRATION
Immigrant center launched
Taoyuan this week opened a center providing services to new immigrants and migrant workers in the city in an effort to improve services. Citing National Immigration Agency data, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said there are about 57,000 new immigrants in the city, accounting for 11 percent of the total nationwide. The Taoyuan New Immigrants Joint Services Center is an example of the efforts made by the local government to better serve new immigrants in Taoyuan, most of whom come from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand, Cheng said. The city government’s commission for new immigrant affairs initiated the plan for the joint services center, Cheng said.
SOCIETY
Man dies after ravine fall
A 33-year-old climber was killed yesterday after he fell into a ravine in Hualien County while his climbing team was rushing to leave the area before Typhoon Nesat’s arrival. The man, surnamed Huang (黃), was exiting the mountains from Shueiyuandi’s (水源地) Shapotang Stream (砂婆礑溪) in Hualien’s Siulin Township (秀林) at 7am yesterday when he fell, Hualien police said. Huang was dead when rescue workers found him at the bottom of the ravine, Hualien County Fire Department officials said. The climbing team of 22 people on Saturday last week entered the mountains to climb the east face of Qilai Mountain, police said. Nesat, the ninth storm to develop in the Pacific Ocean this year, made landfall in Yilan last night.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it