EZ News 05/03/23

Good afternoon, I'm _____ with today's episode of EZ News. **Tai-Ex opening ** The Tai-Ex opened down 7-points this morning from yesterday's close, at 15,630 on turnover of 18-billion N-T. Shares in Taiwan closed higher Tuesday even as contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing remained weak amid lingering concerns over inventory adjustments in the global IC industry. Analysts say investors tended to exit large-cap tech stocks such as TSMC while buying into old economy stocks, including machinery companies involved in renewable energy development and companies holding large amounts of carbon credits, keeping the market in positive territory. **Taichung man confirmed with hepatitis A, in wake of Costco recall ** Taichung has reported a confirmed case of hepatitis A, involving a 40-year-old man who traveled to Mexico in March, and ate a frozen blueberry product from Costco after returning to Taiwan. The local government says the infected man's family members, who also ate the frozen blueberries from an online supermarket, have not displayed any symptoms. The Food and Drug Administration announced that the contagious hepatitis A virus was found earlier in April in a batch of the frozen fruit product "Kirkland Signature Three Berry Blend", imported from Chile, and sold at a Costco supermarket in Kaohsiung. Two Costco stores in Taichung have removed more than 4,000 bags of berry products from shelves as a precaution (預防措施). The CDC has called on anyone who has eaten frozen berries sold by Costco to monitor their health for 60 days, starting from the last day of consumption. **Palestinian Missile Barrage After Prisoner Death ** The Israeli military says that Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired a barrage of rockets following the death of a high-profile Palestinian prisoner in Israeli custody after a nearly three-month-long hunger strike. The death on Tuesday of 45-year-old Khader Adnan, a prominent leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group, has outraged Palestinian militants and leaders, and raised fears of an escalation (加劇，（使）惡化). The Israeli military said that Palestinian militants in Gaza launched 26 rockets toward Israeli territory Tuesday, wounding three foreign nationals. Gaza-based Palestinian militant groups, led by the enclave’s Hamas rulers described the barrage as retaliation for Adnan's death. **UN Chief: World Cannot Be Silent on Afghanistan ** The United Nations Secretary General says the organisation will never be silent when women and girls' rights are under attack. Guterres was speaking to reporters in Doha, Qatar, after convening (召集) an international meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan. Jody Jacobs has more from the UN. **US EU Busts Dark Web Drugs ** Authorities in the U.S. and Europe have arrested nearly 300 people and seized over $53 million in the latest major takedown of a dark web marketplace. Most of the arrests in the operation targeting the “Monopoly Market” were made in the U.S., as well as Germany and the United Kingdom. They also seized firearms and drugs that included fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics. The U.S. is in the grips of an overdose crisis. Synthetic opioids (合成鴉片類藥物), mostly fentanyl, kill more Americans every year than died in the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined. The FBI said investigators got leads in the case from local police investigating overdose deaths. That was the I.C.R.T. news, Check in again tomorrow for our simplified version of the news, uploaded every day in the afternoon. Enjoy the rest of your day, I'm _____. -- Hosting provided by SoundOn