The pan-blue and pan-green camps remained obsessed with political donation and "black gold" issues yesterday, with the pan-blue camp pursuing questions about a Pacific SOGO Department Store donation while the pan-green camp focused on an alleged case of Tuntex Group embezzlement.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教), who first raised questions about a deal between the Presidential Office and Pacific Group chief Chang Min-chiang (章民強), held a telephone press conference yesterday morning to give some details of a meeting between Chang's son, Chang Chi-min (章啟民), and Chen Che-nan (陳哲男), deputy secretary-general of the Presidential Office
"I am asking the Presidential Office to publicize the list of the guests it received on Oct. 8, 2002. Chang Chi-min went to see Chen Che-nan that day," Lee said.
"I am also demanding [Secretary-General of the Presidential Office] Chiou I-jen (
Lee said that Chang Min-chiang had agreed to hold a press conference at an appropriate time to give an explanation of donation.
Meanwhile, Chang Ching-sen (
Chang's comment was in response to former minister of economic affairs Wang Chih-kang's (
Chang displayed confidential ministry documents, signed by Wang in September 1998, which said that only private enterprises were allowed to bid on the project.
"Two months before the Cabinet even approved the Tatan power plant project, Tung Ting had applied to build the Kuantang Industrial Park. Ordinary people did not know about the construction of the power plant and the purchase of thermal equipment, but Tung Ting got wind of them somehow before the project was approved. It makes people wonder whether Tung Ting had inside information," Chang said.
Chang said such inside information might become available through the help of KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
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
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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
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