■ HEALTH
TB patient flew to Hong Kong
A passenger infected with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis took two flights on Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Ltd last Saturday, the carrier said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The passenger flew to Hong Kong from Kaohsiung on flight KA435, then transferred to Dragonair flight KA810 to Nanjing in China's eastern Jiangsu Province, Dragon Airlines said in the statement. The 55-year-old Taiwanese man was accompanied by his wife, who was also infected with the disease, the statement added. The airline was notified by Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday about the matter and has made arrangements to disinfect the airplanes concerned, the statement said. An amendment passed by the legislature last month prohibits individuals infected with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis from boarding flights. The CDC said last night it was mapping out supplementary measures.
■ AGRICULTURE
Mangoes prove popular
Mango heads the list of popular fruit in an online poll sponsored by the Council of Agriculture's Agriculture and Food Agency. The agency said that, as of Tuesday, mango had received 21,000 votes out of a total of more than 35,000. Ranking second is the banana with more than 19,000 votes, followed by the bell fruit with about 17,000 ballots, the pineapple, grapefruit and water melon. The poll is intended to promote local fruit to consumers who have been tempted by a wide variety of foreign imports, agency officials said.
■ SOCIETY
Girlfriend commits suicide
A woman committed suicide in a church, hoping that God would curse a boyfriend who had dumped her, a newspaper said yesterday. The woman, surnamed Dai, 26, hanged herself early on Tuesday inside Fuchou Baptist Church in Banciao, Taipei, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported. Staff members of the church found her body about 6am on Tuesday. In a letter left for a church member, Dai said she had met her boyfriend at the church, but he had recently broken off their relationship. She wrote that she wanted to die inside the church so that God would curse her former boyfriend. Dai apologized for her actions and for causing trouble, the Apple Daily said.
■ DIPLOMACY
Aid given to Santo Domingo
The government donated US$9 million on Tuesday to one of its Latin American diplomatic allies, the Dominican Republic, to build a high-tech industrial park in the capital of Santo Domingo. The money is part of a US$10 million aid package pledged to the country. The presentation ceremony took place at the Dominican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with Dominican Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Morales Troncoso, Dominican Export and Investment Center Director Eddy Martinez, and ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Chen Hsien-hsiang (陳顯祥), jointly presiding over the event. In his address, Morales said that the Dominican government had offered many incentives to attract foreign firms to set up factories or invest in the country. He encouraged state-run and private enterprises to invest in the country, adding that it could be used as a springboard into the US market.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
The cosponsors of a new US sanctions package targeting Russia on Thursday briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation and said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions regarding Taiwan. The bill backed by US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations such as China and India, which account for about 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade, the bankroll of much of its war effort. Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press
INTEL: China’s ships are mapping strategic ocean floors, including near Guam, which could aid undersea cable targeting and have military applications, a report said China’s oceanographic survey and research ships are collecting data in the Indo-Pacific region — possibly to aid submarine navigation, detect or map undersea cables, and lay naval mines — activities that could have military applications in a conflict with Taiwan or the US, a New York Times report said. The article, titled “China Surveys Seabeds Where Naval Rivals May One Day Clash,” was written by Chris Buckley and published on Thursday. Starboard Maritime Intelligence data revealed that Chinese research ships last year repeatedly scanned the ocean floor east of Taiwan’s maritime border, and about 400km east and west of Guam; “waters that
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