WEATHER
More rain ahead: CWA
Sporadic showers and heavy rain are forecast throughout the weekend for the western half and northeastern parts of Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Wednesday. The central and southern regions may see heavy rain or extremely heavy rain, while the north is expected to see heavy rain today, CWA forecaster Huang En-hung (黃恩鴻) said. During the weekend, there would be sporadic showers or thunderstorms across Taiwan and the western half of the nation is likely to experience heavy rain. While there would be a short respite during daytime on Monday and Tuesday, another front is forecast to arrive on Tuesday night or Wednesday, bringing sporadic showers or thunderstorms across the nation with heavy rain in the west, the CWA said. Affected by the fronts, the temperature is expected to hover between lows of 23oC to 25oC and highs of 26oC to 28C, it said.
FOOD
Executives out on bail
Five executives at two Japanese-style barbecue restaurants in Taichung suspected of using expired meat and other food and ingredients have been released on bail of NT$50,000 to NT$800,000 (US$1,535 to US$24,557), the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The five were among eight people, including restaurateurs and employees, who were questioned on Wednesday as part of an investigation into allegations that Wagyu Emperor in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯) and Mikado Yakiniku in West District (西區) sold expired Wagyu beef. Prosecutors and police officers earlier on Wednesday raided the two restaurants, arrested the eight, and seized documents such as inventory and sales log books and other items. After questioning, the Japanese restaurateur, manager and chef of Wagyu Emperor were ordered to post bail of NT$800,000, NT$160,000 and NT$160,000 respectively, and banned from leaving the country, the office said. Meanwhile, the restaurateur of Mikado Yakiniku and a meat supplier’s sales representative were ordered to post bail of NT$300,000 and NT$50,000 respectively, it said. Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) yesterday said that the city government has ordered Mikado Yakiniku to suspend operations and fined the restaurant NT$1.92 million after expired food items were found in its kitchen.
FOOD
Kiwifruit from China barred
A 17,920kg shipment of fresh kiwifruit from China was recently seized at Taiwan’s border after being found to contain excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Tuesday. The shipment was found to contain procymidone — a pesticide that can be used to kill fungi — at a concentration of 0.06 parts per million (ppm), exceeding the 0.01ppm limit, FDA Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said. Information provided by the FDA said the contaminated fresh kiwifruit from the brand “Yang Shi Fruit” was imported from a company in Shaanxi, China, by Grand Bay Fresh Fruits Co in Taipei and was accepted for inspection on March 29. Ten other food shipments, two shipments of chopsticks and one of paper lunchboxes were also seized at the border, the FDA said in its weekly report. The 10 included two shipments of desserts from Vietnam that contained an illegal preservative, two shipments of curry paste from Thailand that contained a banned sweetener, and a shipment of pizza sauce from South Korea that contained excessive preservatives.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
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