The Taipei District Prosecutors' Office on Tuesday decided that the relatives of six people who died as a result of a deadly food poisoning incident in March last year should receive a total of NT$10.8 million (US$327,466), setting a new record for compensation in a food safety case in Taiwan.
The six families have been approved to each receive NT$1.8 million as compensation for deaths connected to Polam Kopitiam, a Malaysian restaurant chain, in accordance with the Crime Victim Rights Protection Act (犯罪被害人權益保障法).
Photo: Kan Meng-lin, Taipei Times
The fatal food poisoning incident at the Polam Kopitiam branch in Taipei's Xinyi District (信義) resulted in 33 people coming down with severe food poisoning after eating flat rice noodles, prosecutors said.
In January, Polam Kopitiam's owner, surnamed Lee (黎), the manager of the Xinyi branch, surnamed Wang (王), two chefs, surnamed Chou (周) and Ho (胡), and an intern at the restaurant were indicted for negligent homicide, negligent injury and contraventions of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), prosecutors said that month.
A preliminary investigation by the Ministry of Health and Welfare determined that bongkrekic acid — a rare and deadly toxin detected in all the victims — caused the food poisoning, but was unable to say definitively where the acid came from.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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