WEATHER
More regional storms form
A low pressure system in the Philippine Sea is likely to become a tropical depression or even a tropical storm, the Central Weather Bureau said, adding that the system, which was about 300km south of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) at the southern tip of Taiwan, would bring rain tomorrow. As a high pressure system over the Pacific approaches Taiwan on Thursday, local weather should stabilize, the bureau said. On Friday night, Tropical Storm Mangkhut — this year’s 22nd storm in the West Pacific Ocean — formed and was 4,480km east of Oluanpi as of 8am yesterday, it added. The tropical storm should not affect the local weather in the short term due to its considerable distance from Taiwan, the bureau said, but added that Mangkhut, which is moving in a westerly direction, might get close enough by next weekend to affect the weather.
TRANSPORTATION
Passenger dies on CAL flight
China Airlines (CAL) yesterday said that a passenger died on flight CI04, its service from Taoyuan to San Francisco, on Friday. Local media reported that the passenger came from Southeast Asia. The passenger became ill and lost consciousness during the flight, which took off from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 11:49pm on Friday, the airline said, adding that the cause of death had not yet been determined. The passenger had no vital signs before the aircraft landed in San Francisco at 8:37pm on the same day, it said. Medical personnel at the airport confirmed the death and local authorities were investigating the cause, the airline said.
EARTHQUAKES
Magnitude 4.2 hits east
A magnitude 4.2 earthquake yesterday jolted eastern Taiwan at 2:50pm, the Central Weather Bureau said. The quake’s hypocenter was about 36.9km north of Hualien County Hall at a depth of 24.2km, the bureau’s Seismology Center said. The temblor’s intensity, or its actual effect, was highest in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), where the center measured an intensity of 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier scale. An intensity of 3 was registered in Hualien County’s Heping Township (和平), while Taichung, Nantou, New Taipei City and Taoyuan registered intensities of 1 to 2.
PUBLIC HEALTH
More dengue cases reported
Indigenous dengue fever continues to spread across the nation, with new cases reported in Changhua County and in New Taipei City’s Yonghe District (永和), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. Changhua County reported its first case of indigenous dengue fever, the agency said, adding that the patient is a female junior-high school student who developed a fever on Aug. 30. Tests on Friday confirmed that she contracted a type 1 (DENV-1) dengue virus infection. Yonghe reported its first case of indigenous dengue fever the same day. The patient is a woman in her 30s, who also contracted the type 1 virus, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said. Health authorities have since disinfected the area around her residence and also called on the public to help prevent the disease from spreading by keeping their surroundings clean of stagnant water, in which mosquitoes breed, Lo said. As of yesterday, a total of 92 indigenous dengue fever cases had been reported in Taiwan this year, the agency said.
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
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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