POLICING
NPA head to retire
National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Chen Ja-chin (陳家欽) has applied for early retirement effective on Thursday next week, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said yesterday. While Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) “fully supports” Chen’s leadership of the agency since 2017 and is sorry to see him retire, Su “respected” his reasons for doing so, Lo said. Chen’s decision to step down ahead of his scheduled retirement in July next year was based in part on his desire to leave important personnel decisions to his successor, Lo said. More than 20 high-ranking police officials are to reach retirement age next month and in January next year, including the deputy director of the NPA, as well as police chiefs and deputies in the six special municipalities, Lo said. Chen also wanted to give his successor adequate time to prepare for security around the January 2024 presidential elections, rather than handing over the reins just six months before they took place, Lo said.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Kinmen Bridge to open
A bridge being built in Kinmen County linking the main island to Lieyu Island is on track to be finished by September and open to traffic in October, the government engineering office in charge of the project said on Wednesday. The 4.8km Kinmen Bridge, which is Taiwan’s first sea bridge, runs east-west from Hupu Road in Lieyu Township (烈嶼) to Cihu Road in Jinning Township (金寧). As of Friday last week, work was 97.46 percent completed, the office said. Construction, which began in 2012, has been plagued by problems such as inexperienced contractors and work crews, resulting in contracts being terminated twice, the Freeway Bureau said. In 2016, a new contract was undertaken and construction restarted in December that year, the bureau said.
TRAFFIC
Road to allow motorcycles
The section of Zhongxiao W Road in front of Taipei Railway Station would open to motorcycles this year for the first time in more than four decades, the Taipei Department of Transportation said on Wednesday. Department Commissioner Chen Shyue-tair (陳學台) told city councilors that the decision to allow motorcycles on the section was “certain” and would begin on a trial basis by the end of the year. The city had restricted that section to motorcycles because of heavy bus traffic and a lack of designated bus lanes, Chen said. Zhongxiao W Road is one of five major surface roads in Taipei with parts closed to motorcycle traffic, the others being Nanjing E Road’s Section 6, Tiding Boulevard’s Section 1, Huanhe N Road and an off-ramp toward Mingshui Road off Zhongshan Road as it crosses Dazhi Bridge.
MEDICINE
Tablets recall ordered
About 980,000 tablets of a prescription medicine to treat high blood pressure have been ordered off pharmacy shelves, with a full recall to be completed by early August after they were found to contain an insufficient amount of a key ingredient, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Wednesday. “Rixia Tablets 0.5mg MACRO (Metolazone)” produced by Macro Global Corp in two batches — A1Y65 and U3Y96 — must be recalled by Aug. 9 because one of their major ingredients is below the required dosage, the FDA said in an advisory. Tablets in the A1Y65 batch contain only 80 percent of the ingredient, falling short of the required 90 to 110 percent, while those in the U3Y96 batch contain only 91.5 percent, FDA official Fu Shu-ching (傅淑卿) said.
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
Taiwan is to extend its visa-waiver program for Philippine passport holders for another year, starting on Aug. 1, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said on Friday. Lin made the announcement during a reception in Taipei marking the 127th anniversary of Philippine independence and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The decision reflected Taiwan’s commitment to deepening exchanges with the Philippines, the statement cited Lin as saying, adding that it was a key partner under the New Southbound Policy launched in 2016. Lin also expressed hope
Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
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