FOOD
Eggs arriving from abroad
Supplemental egg imports are to arrive on Wednesday and reach the shelves before the Tomb Sweeping Festival long weekend, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday. To ease daily egg shortages, which range from 500,000 to 800,000, the council is importing eggs from 10 countries including the US, Thailand and Australia. The eggs are to be distributed at regular wholesale prices, and each box should cost between NT$60 and NT$70, it said. Additional imports have been arranged through new channels within Southeast Asia, as well as with Turkey, Brazil and possibly Poland, the council said.
GOVERNMENT
Trafficking law tightened
The Cabinet on Thursday approved a draft bill setting a maximum five-year prison sentence for attempted human trafficking, rising to seven years if the victim is a minor. The proposal’s amendments to the Human Trafficking Prevention Act (人口販運防制法) and the Criminal Code are to be sent to the legislature for review. It comes after a series of incidents last year in which hundreds of Taiwanese were lured by criminal gangs offering lucrative job offers in Cambodia, only to be held there against their will and forced to work in telecom scams or as prostitutes. Under the proposal, the penalties would apply, for instance, when a trafficking attempt was intercepted by police at an airport, or if the victim is otherwise rescued before being trafficked abroad. A minimum one-year term would be applied to threats, force or fraud being used to subject a person to labor exploitation or underpayment for profit. It would also impose a prison term of one to seven years for exploitation or using a person to carry out activities that are illegal in Taiwan.
COVID-19
Mask rules could loosen
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Thursday said that it is pushing to lift the mask mandate on public transportation after the middle of next month if COVID-19 infections continue to abate. CECC head Victor Wang (王必勝) in a regular briefing on Thursday said it is considering easing the mandate with a recommendation that passengers wear masks, but the matter must be discussed with government ministries and agencies. A timetable would not be decided until after the Tomb Sweeping holiday, he added. Additionally, the CECC is discussing cutting hospitals’ special COVID-19 wards and related operations. Space for special wards was reduced to 4 percent of hospital space last week, and further cuts are being considered, the CECC said.
CRIME
Robbery suspects nabbed
A woman who withdrew nearly NT$7 million (US$230,620) from two different banks in Taipei on Thursday was robbed of NT$5 million by four men who fled the scene. The four suspects in the case were yesterday referred to the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office on robbery charges. The woman, surnamed Hsieh (謝), withdrew NT$5 million and NT$1.95 million from banks in Nangang (南港) and Neihu (內湖) districts respectively. As she drove along Xingzhong Road, an unknown man allegedly opened the door of the vehicle, sprayed her in the face with pepper spray and absconded with NT$5 million, police said. The man left in a vehicle with three accomplices and drove toward Keelung. The police took action after receiving a report. The vehicle and four men were stopped around the 19km mark of Provincial Highway No 2C at 4:10pm driving toward Taipei, police said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS