■ Cross-Strait Affairs
China criticizes US
China accused the US of damaging relations across the Taiwan Strait by encouraging independence seekers and repeated its threat to invade if Taiwan drags its feet on reunification. Xinhua news agency said on Sunday that US President George W. Bush had reiterated his commitment to Beijing's "one China" policy in a telephone conversation with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤). But in a separate commentary, it blamed the US for the deteriorating relations between China and Taiwan. "Due to the support and connivance of the United States, Taiwan authorities have gone further down the road toward `independence' and the United States is responsible for the current worsening situation across the Taiwan Strait," it said. "Just because a handful of people inside and outside the island are still seeking `Taiwan independence,' China cannot make a commitment to renouncing the use of force for realizing national reunification and has had to make necessary and limited military deployment," it added.
■ Crime
Alleged smuggler arrested
A Thai woman was arrested at CKS International Airport late Sunday night on charges of trafficking illicit drugs, aviation police sources reported yesterday. Police discovered a bag of amphetamine in the luggage of Patcharee Wang, a Thai national, who returned to Taiwan after a trip to Thailand. Wang, 24, is married to a Taiwanese man. According to the police, Wang said that a Thai friend, named Chei, asked her to bring the drugs to another Thai man residing in Taiwan called Big. The woman said that she was told to wrap the 800g of amphetamine in carbon paper before hiding it in a jar containing thick chili sauce in an attempt to evade X-ray checks at airport customs.
■ Environment
Riverbanks to lure tourists
The Taipei County Government has ambitious plans to transform riverbanks in the county into environmentally friendly leisure areas. Officials are planning to turn some 1,000 hectares of land near the banks of the Tahan River, the Tamsui River and Hsintien River into leisure and wildlife-conservation zones. Hsu Shao-feng (許少峰), newly appointed director of the River, Highland and Beach Division, said riverbanks, including dikes, would now have functions other than acting to prevent floods. Citing wetland near the Erchung Dike in Wuku township, Hsu said fireflies had been cultivated in large numbers there, showcasing efforts to conserve and replenish an area seriously polluted by industrial waste and development. Two man-made canals in the Erchung area, to be named Breeze Canal and Sunshine Canal, have been dug and are expected to be opened to tourists for boating this summer, Hsu said.
■ Diplomacy
DPP delegation heads to US
A group of 19 Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials will leave for Washington today to embark on a 10-day tour to study bilateral relations as well as observe the US presidential campaign. The group, led by Hsieh Whai-hui (謝懷慧), deputy director of the DPP's International Affairs Department, is made up of the newly appointed heads of departments, senior DPP legislative assistants as well as executive directors from the party's local chapters. During the visit to Washington, the group will meet with US academics and government officials.
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
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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