■ Chen's trip
Protesters offered cash
People protesting against President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in New York last Friday may have been paid US$25 to do so. Last Friday, during his stopover in New York, Chen encountered Chinese protesters shouting "down with the Taiwan independentists!" An e-mail circulated over the Internet reads: "Taiwan `President' Chen Shuibian [sic] is going to visit New York on Oct. 31st Friday. Hereby, numerous Chinese organizations in tri-state area have decided to hold a grand protest right in front Waldolf Hotel [sic]. So, please join us. For details in Chinese, please visit www.acssny.org. Everyone attending this event will get $25 and also transportation fee will be reimbursed." On its Web site, the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars (ACSSNY) called for participation in the protest, adding it would offer People's Republic of China's flags and bottled water, but did not mention the US$25.
■ Typhoon Melor
Hikers call for help
Twenty-nine hikers from the Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology called for help from a mountain at Jenai village in the county of Nantou early yesterday morning. They told the fire department that two of them were injured in heavy rains brought by Typhoon Melor. The fire department has sent 14 rescuers to help them, but it will take three days to reach the hikers. Poor weather has prevented the use of helicopters in the rescue operation. The hikers said they have enough food, but they need warm clothes because of the low temperatures at night.
■ SARS
Information program to air
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) will broadcast a television program on Monday to communicate the government's SARS policies to the public. The program will be aired every Monday and Thursday night at 7pm on all the country's major television channels, including Eastern Television, Formosa Television and Taiwan Television. According to Shih Wen-yi, CDC deputy director general, the program was a success last May and cleared up the confusion caused by inaccurate reporting on SARS issues. Shih reminded the public that temperature readings will be mandatory beginning Dec. 15. He called on those with a fever to stay at home.
■ Health
Draft to help patients
Those suffering from rare illnesses would experience less hassle when applying for international medical help, according to the draft amendments to the Rare-disease Prevention and Medication Law (罕見疾病防治及藥物法) the Executive Yuan intends to approve tomorrow. Under the draft, sufferers of rare diseases or their legal representative would be eligible to apply for the international medical cooperation program with less paperwork. The rare-disease and medication evaluation committee would be in charge of reviewing applications. With the consent of the patient or the person's legal representative, the Bureau of Health Promotion under the Department of Health could also dispatch healthcare personnel to visit the patient's home and provide treatment counseling. The draft would also mandate that healthcare personnel, medical institutions or associations, rare-disease patient's associations, medical supervisory authorities keep the health records of rare disease sufferers confidential.
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
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
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,