Culture: Chen pays tribute to condutor
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) paid tribute yesterday to Henry Mazer, the musical director-general and conductor of the Taipei Sinfonietta & Philharmonic Orchestra (TSPO), who died Aug. 1 at the age of 85. Chen praised Mazer for his lifelong achievements and his great contributions to music in Taiwan. In 1981, having made a name for himself with his work in the US, Mazer came to Taiwan and devoted himself to the development of local orchestras. After the establishment of the TSPO, he led the orchestra in performance tours of Europe and the US to great acclaim, Chen said. A memorial service for Mazer will take place this morning at the Grace Baptist Church in Taipei.
Weather: CWB watching new typhoon
The year's 15th typhoon formed at 8am yesterday about 3,000km away from Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said. Bureau meteorologists said that it is too early to tell whether Typhoon Rusa will affect Taiwan, adding that they will have a clearer picture after Aug. 28. Rusa is currently located near Wake Island, moving west at a speed of 10-15kph, according to the meteorologists. They said the typhoon's structure is strong, so the bureau will keep an eye on its development.
Legal system: Death changed to life term
The Taiwan High Court yesterday reduced convicted murderer Chen Hsin-chung's (陳新中) death sentence to life imprisonment. The court found that Chen had attempted to rape a female classmate, also surnamed Chen, at her Keelung apartment last year. However, he was unable to carry out the rape because he was too nervous and when the woman laughed at him, he killed her. The Keelung District Court sentenced Chen to death for the murder. According to the Taiwan High Court's verdict, Chen and his victim's family have agreed upon a NT$3 million compensation payment. Given the compensation offer and Chen's remorse and apologies since his arrest, the high court decided to remove him from death row but keep him behind bars for life.
Cross-strait Ties: MAC helps Chinese publish
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) will continue to provide financial support for publication in Taiwan of academic writing and compilations from China, MAC Vice Chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said yesterday. The council's Chinese Development Foundation receives applications from Chinese citizens for financial support to allow Chinese scholars and academics to be published here. The program, according to Chen, is aimed at championing Chinese culture, facilitating bilateral exchanges across the Taiwan Strait and encouraging Chinese intellectuals to have more of their books published.
Diplomacy: DPP official goes to Japan
DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) will head for Tokyo today for a six-day visit. Chatting with journalists yesterday at the DPP headquarters in Taipei, Chang said he will give a speech at a symposium in Tokyo on the prospects of Taiwan's ties with China and call on leaders of Japanese political parties during his trip. He will also meet with overseas Chinese in Tokyo and give interviews to the Sankei Shimbun and the Mainich Shimbum, two mass circulation newspapers in Japan, Chang said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the