Tai-ex Opening

Financial markets opened with the New Taiwan dollar at 31.92 against the U.S. dollar in the foreign exchange market today.

The NT was down 0.01 from the previous close.

The currency traded in a range of NT$31.92 to NT$31.93 per U.S. dollar in early trading.

Taipei shares also opened lower… The Taiex was down 199.02 points, and the index started the day at 46,545.14 points.

Turnover at the opening totaled NT$10.134 billion.

1,300 tonnes of tainted cooking oil products recalled

The Food and Drug Administration has recalled around 1,300 tonnes of cooking oil products (大豆沙拉油) after they were found to contain excessive levels of a carcinogenic compound.

The F-D-A says the affected soy-based cooking oil was produced by Taichung-based Central Union Oil and supplied to three major local food oil companies.

The affected oil was sold to the three companies between April 8 and April 10.

The F-D-A says the three companies immediately recalled the products after being notified by Central Union of the anomaly.

Central Union has been ordered to suspend (停產) production while authorities review its manufacturing processes (生產流程) to determine the cause of the problem.

CWA monitoring Typhoon Bavi

Typhoon Bavi is now a moderate typhoon (輕度颱風).

It is expected to continue intensifying into a strong typhoon by tonight.. and its likely to impact Taiwan later next week.

Independent meterologist Wu De Rong describes Bavi as a large and powerful typhoon typical of an El Niño (聖嬰年) year.

Wu said Bavi is expected to move west-northwestward reaching waters southeast of Japan's Ryukyu Islands (琉球群島) by the middle of next week.

Iran imposes new tanker routes

In interntaional news,

Iran’s joint military command is warning that all oil tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz must use its approved routes or face a “forceful response.”

Ship passage through the vital waterway is continuing to rebound (持續回升), even after Iran attacked two commercial vessels last week.

Karen Chammas reports.

Vatican excommunicates traditionalists

The Vatican has responded aggressively to a traditionalist society that consecrated bishops without the pope’s consent (同意).

The Vatican declared that the Society of St. Pius X had formally broken with the Catholic Church and it excommunicated (絕罰) its bishops.

It also warning its faithful they also could face the harsh sanctions.

The Vatican went above and beyond the minimal sanctions foreseen by the church’s canon law to respond to the consecrations Wednesday of four new bishops at the society’s seminary in Switzerland.
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