ENTERTAINMENT
OneRepublic to perform
American pop-rock band OneRepublic is scheduled to perform its second concert in Kaohsiung on Dec. 19, the event’s organizer announced yesterday. The concert is to be held at the Kaohsiung Arena, with tickets going on general sale at 1pm yesterday. Prices range from NT$2,400 to NT$4,900, Live Nation Taiwan said in a Facebook post. A portion of the tickets is to be available for presale from Friday to Monday for artists, DBS Mastercard holders and members of Live Nation Taiwan, the organizer said.
LABOR
Worker dies in Changhua
A worker at a feed factory in Changhua County’s Beidou Township (北斗) died yesterday after his right leg was caught in a corn crusher while cleaning the machine as it was running. The 41-year-old man, surnamed Yang (楊), slipped on the stairs inside the machine and became trapped, the county’s fire bureau said. The bureau received an emergency call at 10:48am. Rescuers said they reached Yang at 11:10am and found him conscious. Advanced emergency medical technicians were dispatched to help control his bleeding and provide other critical care. At 11:34am, technicians from the machine’s manufacturer arrived to help dismantle the equipment, and Yang was extricated at 12:15pm, but he had already lost vital signs. He was pronounced dead after being sent to Yuanlin Christian Hospital.
FOOD SAFETY
Items blocked at border
A batch of coriander powder imported from India has been destroyed at the border for containing Sudan I, a banned toxic dye, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. The 10kg batch of spices also contained excessive amounts of pesticides, the FDA said. Meanwhile, two separate batches of gelato take-out containers from Italy, both imported by Venchi Taiwan Limited, Taiwan Branch (Hong Kong), were stopped at the border for contravening separate import regulations. The 62.04kg batch of containers for the chocolate brand Venchi contained optical brightening agents, which are banned for food container use, and also failed dissolution tests, the FDA said, adding that containers that fail dissolution tests could release toxic substances even under normal use. Also, on yesterday’s list of items blocked at the border were dried mulberries from China, cumin powder from India and fresh durian from Vietnam, which were flagged for excessive bleach, pesticides and heavy metal contaminations respectively.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
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