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.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner