HEALTH
One dies of food poisoning
Another person died of last month’s food poisoning outbreak at the Xinyi branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, bringing the number of deaths to three, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said yesterday. As of Friday, 35 people were reported to have fallen ill after dining at the Xinyi restaurant from March 19 to 24, including two deaths reported late last month. The latest death was one of the four severe cases under intensive care. The patient died of multiple organ failure, Wang said. Taipei Medical University Hospital in a text message said that the patient was transferred to the hospital on March 24 and died yesterday. Wang said that the condition of the remaining three severe cases remains the same. One person has received a liver transplant and is in the process of recovering, while others have had severe infection, he added. It is clear that this incident is a case of bongkrek acid-led poisoning, Wang said.
SEISMICITY
Aftershocks normal: CWA
An earthquake measuring magnitude 6.1 on the Richter scale that struck off the coast of eastern Taiwan early yesterday is an aftershock of the April 3 Hualien earthquake that claimed at least 18 lives, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The quake, which struck at 2:21am, was the largest aftershock since a magnitude 6.3 earthquake rattled the eastern county early on Tuesday. People in 13 administrative regions received emergency alerts, the agency said. Two more aftershocks of stronger than magnitude 4.5 on the Richter scale followed the quake yesterday within half an hour, including one of magnitude 5.8 at 2:49am. Their epicenter was in Hualien County’s Sioulin Township (秀林), near the epicenter of the April 3 quake. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) said that large earthquakes tend to be followed by aftershocks over a long period. The CWA has observed no anomalies in terms of the aftershocks, he added. As of 6am yesterday, Taiwan has experienced 1,303 aftershocks since the April 3 quake, with six registering at least magnitude 6, and 63 between magnitudes 5 and 6, the CWA data showed.
SCIENCE
Bacterial strain discovered
A research team from National Taiwan Ocean University’s (NTOU) Institute of Marine Biology has discovered a bacterial strain with the potential to degrade plastic, the university said in a statement on Monday. The team, led by assistant professor Ho Ying-ning (何攖寧), said that it has found a marine bacterial strain isolated from marine sediment on Taiwan’s northern coast, which they named Oceanimonas pelagia NTOU-MSR1. The bacterium, possibly a new member of the Oceanimonas genus, was able to biodegrade 10 to 15 percent of polyethylene, which is one of the most commonly used plastics worldwide, in 120 days. The strain was also able to produce a biosurfactant that emulsified 40 percent of diesel fuel within two weeks, the statement said. Genomic analysis of the bacteria showed genes associated with the biosynthesis of polyhydroxybutyrate, a substance considered a biodegradable plastic alternative, it added. Ho said the strain’s potential for environment restoration and commercial use would be explored with plans to use it in environmental protection. The findings were last month published in Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, an international scientific journal covering microbiology.
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
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