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.
Two people were killed and another nine injured yesterday after being stung by hornets while hiking in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), with officials warning against wearing perfume or straying from trails during the autumn to avoid the potentially deadly creatures. Seven of the hikers only sustained minor injuries after being stung along the Bafenliao Hiking Trail (八分寮) and made their way down the mountain with a guide, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. Four of them — all male — sustained more serious injuries and were assisted when leaving the mountain, the department said. Two of them, a man surnamed
Recent movements by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been “highly unusual,” but the military maintains a grasp of the situation, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said on Friday, after the military for the first time said it was monitoring troop movements in China’s Dacheng Bay (大埕灣). The minister gave the remarks to reporters before appearing at the legislature on the first day of its new session. The Ministry of National Defense on Thursday evening released an air force surveillance photograph of a PLA Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, and said it was monitoring the PLA Rocket Force and ground
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching
China’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong has asked foreign consulates in Hong Kong to submit details of their local staff, which is more proof that the “one country, two systems” model no longer exists, a Taiwanese academic said. The office sent letters dated Monday last week to consulates in the territory, giving them one month to submit the information it requires. The move followed Beijing’s attempt to obtain floor plans for all properties used by foreign missions in Hong Kong last year, which raised concerns among diplomats that the information could be used for
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