CUSTOMS
Teabag shipments seized
About 17,000 teabags were seized by customs officials after a regular inspection found that the teabags contained high levels of chemicals, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. A shipment of tea from Sri Lanka and India — 197.1kg of six types of the Florian brand — was found to contain residues of 2,6-diisopropylnaphthalene, a plant growth inhibitor prohibited in Taiwan, the FDA said. A shipment of tea from Japan — 48kg of Ganko Uji — was also seized after it was found to contain residues of the pesticide thiacloprid at a concentration of 0.07 parts per million (ppm), exceeding the maximum permitted 0.05ppm, it said.
SOCIETY
Architect dies aged 96
Architect Wang Chiu-hwa (王秋華), known for her designs of public libraries, died on Monday at the age of 96, architect and writer Roan Ching-yueh (阮慶岳) said. Wang served as a model for local architects, and her thinking and values had a considerable influence on the younger generation, Roan said. Minister of Culture Lee Yung-te (李永得) on Monday offered his condolences to Wang’s family and said he would request that Wang be awarded a posthumous presidential citation. Wang was born in 1925 in Beijing, and went to the US in 1946 after obtaining a bachelor’s in architecture. She worked for US architect and urban planner Percival Goodman from the 1950s until resettling in Taipei in 1979 to continue her design work and teach at universities.
SOCIETY
Mother to be deported
An Indonesian woman living in Taichung, who on Monday called for help to save her infant son, was later detained after police found that she was in Taiwan illegally. The Taichung Fire Bureau said that it received a call from her landlord saying that the woman’s son had stopped breathing. The Duty Command Center immediately contacted her online and told her to conduct CPR as firefighters rushed to her apartment. When they arrived on the scene, the boy did not have a heartbeat and was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Taichung police said they suspected that he might have died from asphyxiation and quoted the woman as saying that the baby might have become pinned down by her three-year-old son, who had been sleeping in the same bed. While investigating the death, police found that the woman was a migrant worker who had skipped out on her employer. She broke the terms of her contract, so she and the three-year-old are to be repatriated, they said.
SOCIETY
Man dies in grain elevator
A Chiayi man yesterday died after slipping and falling into corn while working in a grain elevator in the county’s Yijhu Township (義竹), the Chiayi County Fire Bureau said. The bureau identified the victim as a 37-year-old man surnamed Ko (柯) who was an employee of the Yijhu Township Farmers’ Association. Ko and another employee were sweeping corn from the silo’s interior walls when he fell, the bureau said, quoting the coworker. As the corn was lowered to the conveyor belt, Ko sank into the grain, which shifted “like quicksand,” the coworker said. After breaching the wall of the silo, first responders retrieved Ko’s body with a harness, the bureau said. Ko was rushed to Tainan’s Chimei Hospital, but efforts to revive him failed and he was pronounced dead, the bureau said. Police opened an investigation to verify the witness’ account, it added.
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
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
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