Ten people have fallen ill in Japan with a girl in a serious condition after eating dumplings from China that contained insecticide, police said yesterday, warning they could press criminal charges.
The scare was breaking news shortly before dinner time in Japan, with national television broadcasting a live press conference in which distributor JT Foods said it was recalling the dumplings.
"We pray for the early recovery of those whose health was affected," said Mutsuo Iwai, an executive at cigarette giant Japan Tobacco, of which JT Foods is a subsidiary. "We sincerely apologize for the trouble."
The health ministry said Japan had requested via diplomatic channels that China, its largest trading partner, help with the investigation.
Ten people, including a mother and her four children, fell ill in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo and western Hyogo prefecture after eating gyoza dumplings, local police officials said.
At least five of them were still in hospital after suffering vomiting, stomach aches or diarrhoea, the officials said. A five-year-old girl was reported to be in a serious condition, temporarily losing consciousness.
"We are looking to see whether this constitutes a criminal case," a police official in Chiba prefecture told reporters.
An employee at the plant in Hebei Province denied wrongdoing, saying contamination of dumplings would be "impossible."
"There is no problem with our company," the employee of Tianyang Food Processing, whose name was not given, said in an interview broadcast by Japan's TV Asahi. "Our company has strict safety standards."
Iwai said Japan Tobacco first found out about the problem on Dec.r 28 when two people were hospitalized in Chiba prefecture.
He rejected suggestions the company acted late, saying it did not reveal the case for a month because "we could not find a causal link" between the dumplings and the illnesses.
JT Foods said an insecticide called methamidophos was found in the dumplings.
It said it was recalling 23 products made at the Tianyang Food factory for JT Foods.
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his
‘SOVEREIGN AI’: As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for having computing power of 103 petaflops. The governments wants to achieve 1,200 by 2029 The government would intensify efforts to bolster its “Sovereign Artificial Intelligence [AI]” program by setting a goal of elevating the nation’s collective computing power in the public and private sectors to 1,200 peta floating points per second (petaflops) by 2029, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The goal was set to fulfill President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision of turning Taiwan into an “AI island.” Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks. One petaflop allows 1 trillion calculations per second. As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for
Israel yesterday said it has begun preparations for the departure of large numbers of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in line with US President Donald Trump’s plan for the territory, while Egypt has launched a diplomatic blitz behind the scenes to try and head off the plan. The Trump administration has already dialed back aspects of the proposal after it was widely rejected internationally, saying the relocation of Palestinians would be temporary. US officials have provided few details about how or when the plan would be carried out. Trump yesterday said that Israel would turn Gaza over to the US after the