■ Politics
Construction statute stalls
A draft statute proposed
to increase investment in public construction did
not make further progress yesterday after the pan-blue alliance and the Democratic Progressive Party disagreed on its wording during negotiations hosted by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平). The
statute was scheduled to
be discussed during the legislative sitting yesterday, but the caucuses earlier decided to negotiate on the matter before it was formally discussed in the legislature. Negotiations broke down, however, and the impasse
is will further delay debate
on the statute, which is
crucial to the passage of the government's package of 10 major construction projects.
■ Politics
Siew to quit KMT post
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) yesterday expressed his intention to resign from
the post. "For the sake of injecting new blood into
the party and for the sake
of the party's continued development, I am happy
to resign from my vice chairmanship after I have completed the hands-on tasks assigned to me by [KMT] Chairman Lien [Chan] (連戰)," the former premier said yesterday. Siew, the KMT's highest-ranking vice chairman, was appointed by Lien two weeks ago to co-chair a task force with KMT Vice Chairman Wang Jin-pyng focusing on reforming party policy, formulating strategy and identifying future political platforms. The party's leadership, notably Lien, has come under heavy fire from certain party members who have demanded new leaders and party reform.
■ Labor
Chinese eye high-tech jobs
The government is expected to allow the employment
of technology professionals from China to ease an acute labor shortage in high-tech industries, the Economic Daily News reported yesterday. The Council of Labor Affairs is currently drafting measures to allow employers with annual
sales of at least NT$1 billion (US$30 million) to hire Chinese professionals, the newspaper said without citing a source. The technology professionals must have at least a bachelor's degree and at least two years of experience in their fields, it said, adding that the new measure
was expected to become effective next month at the earliest. Council officials declined to confirm or deny the report.
■ Crime
US releases fishermen
A fishing boat based in the eastern Taiwan port of Suao left San Francisco for home on Thursday after its captain and chief engineer were released from prison,
having served 18 months
on a human-trafficking conviction which was later overturned. Happy 366 captain Chen Lai-fa (陳來發) and chief engineer Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) are expected to arrive in Taiwan in two months, ending
an ordeal that began
in October 2002, when
their Chinese crew perjured themselves before US judges, saying that Chen and Lin received money from them to secretly ferry them to the US. Chen said that the Chinese crew had abducted them and then sailed
the ship to the US west
coast. After the ship was intercepted by the US Coast Guard, the sailors invented accusations of trafficking
and Chen and Lin were jailed. After a lengthy appeal, the charges of human trafficking against Chen and Lin were dismissed in March and the charges of illegal entry were dismissed last Saturday.
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,