SEISMOLOGY
More earthquakes expected
More earthquakes of magnitude 3 to 4 could hit Chiayi over the next one to two weeks, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. CWA Seismological Center division chief Lee I-ting (李伊婷) said the earthquake that measured 7.2 on the Richter scale that struck off Hualien on April 3 resulted in stress adjustments in the underground fault zones in Chiayi. This might have triggered blind faults and unknown faults in western Taiwan to release energy, leading to frequent temblors occurring around the Chiayi area, Lee said, adding that the center has recorded 21 earthquakes within a 10km radius of Chiayi County’s Budai Township (布袋) since April 1. Of these, eight were concentrated within seven hours between late on Friday to early Saturday morning.
DIPLOMACY
Paraguay delegation lands
Paraguayan Senate President Silvio Adalberto Ovelar Benitez arrived in Taiwan yesterday for a five-day stay during which he is to meet with President Tsai Ying-wen (蔡英文), president-elect William Lai (賴清德) and other senior government officials. Upon arrival at Taiwan, Taoyuan International Airport, Ovelar said he is happy to be invited by the government to visit the country again. Ovelar is leading a delegation consisting of Second Vice President of the Chamber of Senators Hermelinda Alvarenga de Ortega and Senator Pedro Alejandro Diaz. The trip marks Ovelar’s third visit to Taiwan. He last visited the country in 2004 as then minister of social development and during his previous stint as Senate speaker, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
FOOD
Sudan IV found in powder
A pepper powder product submitted by Taichung food industry operators for voluntary testing was found to contain an industrial dye known as Sudan IV and was being removed from store shelves, the city government announced on Saturday. The Taichung Office of Food and Drug Safety reported that the “Gu Yue powder,” supplied by Taichung-based Luye Foods Corp, tested positive for Sudan IV, a chemical classified as toxic in Taiwan. The office said it has asked 25 downstream buyers in Taichung and areas such as Changhua, Miaoli and Nantou counties as well as New Taipei City to stop selling the product and to recall it.
ELECTION
KMT wins five by-elections
Candidates belonging to or supported by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) won five of six by-elections held across Taiwan on Saturday.
The by-elections were held to fill vacant political offices across the country, including the mayorship of Miaoli City, township mayor positions in Taitung’s Dawu Township (大武), as well as Yunlin’s Huwei (虎尾) and Mailiao (麥寮) townships, a district seat in Yilan’s county council and a district seat on Taichung’s city council. KMT candidates scored victories in Miaoli, Taitung and Taichung, while independent candidates supported by the KMT won in Yilan and Huwei. In the remaining race, in Mailiao, Democratic Progressive Party member Hsu Chung-fu (許忠富) sailed to victory running as an independent. Legislator and member of the KMT’s Organizational Development Committee Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) said the results served as a reminder to president-elect William Lai (賴清德) that “the public’s dissatisfaction with the Democratic Progressive Party is ongoing.” DPP spokesman Wu Cheng (吳崢) said a variety of factors, including low turnout, were behind the party’s losses.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
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