PHARMACEUTICALS
Cold capsules recalled
The supplier of Noritle Cold Vitamin Capsules has announced a recall of about 30,000 packets of the product due to concerns over quality assurance at the company, after an inspection of the firm’s manufacturing facility showed the drug’s ingredient list to be inaccurate. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year during an inspection of a pharmaceutical factory commissioned by Tien Liang Biotech Co to manufacture the cold capsules found irregularities in the facility’s lab testing procedures and lab report data, FDA official Hsieh Chi-wen (謝綺雯) said yesterday. The agency has demanded that the factory authorize a third-party lab to carry out testing before a deadline and halt delivery of other items in the same product line to ensure safety, she said, adding that the factory failed to meet the deadline.
CUSTOMS
Yen seized from 60-year-old
Customs authorities yesterday confiscated ¥16.31 million (US$147,442) from an inbound Taiwanese woman, who was caught carrying about ¥17.44 million in undeclared cash at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. The woman, aged 60, was attempting to bring the undeclared Japanese currency into the country on her return from Japan. Given that she had not declared the cash, the Customs Administration allowed her to keep about ¥1.13 million, or the equivalent of US$10,000 — the maximum amount that travelers can carry without needing to declare it — but seized the remainder. The woman said she earned the money in Japan, adding that she had declared it to Japanese customs and was unaware that she should also declare it upon reaching Taiwan. According to an amendment to the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法) that went into effect on June 28 last year, passengers entering or leaving Taiwan with cash in local currency exceeding NT$100,000, foreign currency exceeding US$10,000 or Chinese currency exceeding 20,000 yuan must declare it.
WEATHER
Tomorrow turning wet, cold
The weather around Taiwan was warm and comfortable yesterday as temperatures continued to rise from last week’s lows, the Central Weather Bureau said. Daytime highs reached 22°C to 26°C in the north and east, and 28°C in the south, the bureau said. The weather is expected to turn wet and cooler starting tomorrow afternoon, as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen and a cloud system arrives from the south, the bureau said.
CRIME
Philippines arrest Taiwanese
Representative to the Philippines Gary Lin (林松煥) on Sunday confirmed that at least 40 Taiwanese were among the 158 suspects arrested in the Philippines on Saturday for their alleged involvement in telecom fraud. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines sent staff to Philippine National Police headquarters, where the suspects were detained, Lin said, adding that he has demanded the Philippines deport the suspects, most of whom are believed to be from China, based on their nationality, with Taiwanese nationals being repatriated to Taiwan. The suspects are accused of posing as police officers, prosecutors and judges to scam people in China by tricking them into transferring money into designated accounts. Lin said the office would suggest to the government in Taipei that those convicted of telecom fraud or drug trafficking overseas should have their passports temporarily revoked to quell public anger and prevent further crimes.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater