SEISMICITY
Earthquake shakes Nantou
A magnitude 5.6 earthquake yesterday jolted Nantou County at 6:41pm, the Central Weather Bureau said. The earthquake was centered in the county’s Renai Township (仁愛), 40.9km northeast of Nantou County Hall, the bureau said. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges its actual effect, was highest in Nantou, Changhua, Hualien and Yilan counties, and Taichung, where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, it said. The earthquake also had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Taitung and Yunlin counties, it added. No immediate damage or injuries were reported.
HEALTH
Virus rules scofflaws nabbed
Nearly 100 migrant workers from Vietnam were on Sunday caught gathering at a restaurant in Taoyuan, in contravention of the government’s COVID-19 restrictions on indoor gatherings, which are capped at 80, police said yesterday. Acting on a tip-off received at about 8:30pm about migrant workers gathering for a party at a restaurant on Taoying Road, police surrounded the venue to prevent anyone from leaving. After having the restaurant’s owner, a Vietnamese woman surnamed Nguyen, 33, open a closed roll-up metal entrance, police found about 40 people inside and about 50 more hiding on the top floor, Dashu Police Station Chief Hsieh Ching-hua (謝青樺) said. The police ultimately found 102 people gathered at the restaurant, including four employees and 98 customers, all of whom were from Vietnam, Hsieh said.
SOCIETY
Man swept away in Miaoli
Rescue teams in Miaoli County were on Sunday searching for a man who was swept away while fishing in the Houlong River (後龍溪), the county’s Fire Bureau said. The bureau received a report of a man swept away by the river at 2:48pm and dispatched rescuers to the scene near Gui-Shan Bridge, it said. Although they did not find the man, they rescued two migrant workers trapped under the bridge, the bureau said. The missing man’s motorcycle was found nearby, and his wife was notified about his disappearance, the bureau said. Firefighters joined rescuers to search along the river and drones were used to help with the search, it said. The rescuers were unable to enter the water because of the strong current, it said. A cable was set up under Xindong Bridge, nearly 2km downstream, so the man could grab it if he passes by, the bureau said.
SOCIETY
Man found off Kinmen
Coast guard officers on Sunday intercepted a boat carrying a Chinese man who said he was seeking freedom in Taiwan, the Coast Guard Administration said. The man was being questioned about the incident, it added. The boat was spotted off Kinmen County’s Lieyu Township (烈嶼) during a regular patrol, a local coast guard unit said. When the rubber dinghy was intercepted, its lone occupant, a man his 50s, said he had traveled from nearby Xiamen, China, in pursuit of freedom and democracy in Taiwan, the administration said. The coast guard detained the man and notified the Kinmen County Department of Health and other agencies about his attempted illegal entry into the country. In keeping with the nation’s COVID-19 regulations, the man was taken to a quarantine facility in Kinmen, where he would be monitored for the required 14-day period, after which he would be handed over to the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office, the coast guard said.
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
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
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai