MILITARY
Mirage flights resume
Taiwan’s Mirage 2000 fighters returned to normal flying operations early yesterday after being grounded for safety checks following a crash earlier this month, a military source said. Flight operations resumed when a twin-seater Mirage 2000 copiloted by Major General Pan Tung-chu (潘東櫸), the leader of the Hsinchu-based Second Tactical Fighter Wing, took to the air yesterday morning, the source said. Another pilot was seen in the plane with Pan in an air force photo, but no further details were provided. The resumption of normal flight operations came after the air force lifted the grounding order for all of Taiwan’s 50-plus Mirage 2000s following the completion of a round of safety checks in the wake of an incident on Sept. 10. Preliminary indications were that one of the crashed fighter’s engines had lost thrust, the air force said. The investigation into the incident is ongoing.
SOCIETY
Fire drill in Kaohsiung
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency on Monday advised people in Kaohsiung not to panic if they receive a forest fire drill text warning on their phones on Friday. A message reading: “Forest Fire Alert Drill. Please don’t panic” would be delivered through the Public Warning Cell Broadcast Service between 2:30pm and 3:30pm to devices in Tianliao (田寮) and Cishan (旗山) districts, the agency said. The drill is part of the agency’s efforts to help raise awareness of forest fires in higher-risk areas in central and southern Taiwan, particularly during next month’s dry season, the agency added. From 2019 to last year, Taiwan reported an average of 53.4 forest fires each year, 97 percent of which were caused by human factors, the agency said. Under Article 34 of the Forestry Act (森林法), the lighting of fires in forest areas or forest reserves is strictly prohibited unless prior approval is received from the authorities. Violators face a prison sentence of three to 10 years as well as a fine of up to NT$600,000 (US$18,770).
FOOD SAFETY
KFC seasoning stopped
A shipment of chicken seasoning imported from Thailand for Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) was found to contain a banned pesticide and stopped by officials from entering Taiwan. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday published a list of 11 items that were found to be substandard after being inspected at the border over the past few months. Among them was a shipment of 2,024.42kg of chicken seasoning from Thailand in which 0.1mg/kg of the banned pesticide ethylene oxide was found during testing that began on July 22, the FDA said. FDA Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said the importer of the spices, Jardine Food Services (Taiwan) Co (富利食品), which operates KFC and Pizza Hut in Taiwan, is to be subject to batch-by-batch inspections of its imported ingredients. The products imported by Jardine were previously under a heightened inspection rate of 50 percent, up from the customary 20 percent, Lin said. Condiments and spices imported from Thailand by other companies would also continue to be inspected at the higher rate until the end of the year, Lin said. The other items on yesterday’s list were tested from July 2 to Sept. 6. Among them was a shipment of 1,312.5kg of banana chips imported from the Philippines that was found to contain excessive amounts of the toxic substance benzopyrene and prohibited from entering Taiwan.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its