■ Politics
New life for old village
Taiwan Provincial Government Chairman Lin Kuang-hua (林光華) said yesterday he will come up with a detailed plan to transform Chunghsing New Village in Nantou County into a high-profile arts village. The village used to be the seat of the provincial government. With the marginalization of the provincial government a few years ago as part of the central government's restructuring plan, many public dormitories in the complex have been left vacant. Lin said he plans to transform those buildings into workshops to attract noted artists, thus making the village into the nation's new arts center.
■ Government
Holiday gifts at MOFA
Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) has presented seasonal foods to the ministry staff to mark the Dragon Boat Festival yesterday. Ministry officials said Chen had directed his aides to prepare the gifts for the staff before he left for the US early last week to attend several international seminars organized by US think tanks. The gifts included zongzi -- the glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves -- as well as mangoes and a special brand of noodles from Chen's hometown in Tainan County, the officials said. Chen met with American think tank staff during his stay in Los Angeles. He then traveled to Beaver Creek, Colorado, where he attended the World Forum organized by the American Enterprise Institute. Chen is also scheduled to travel to Europe next month to chair a meeting of the chiefs of Taiwan's missions in the region.
■ Travel
CAL launches new route
China Airlines (CAL) yesterday inaugurated the Taipei-Seattle-Houston passenger service to become the first national airlines to extend its passenger network to the southern US, officials said. The new service, which leaves Taipei every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for Houston with a stop in Seattle, will expand the CALs operational points in the US to 12, including four codeshare destinations with Delta Airlines, they said. "Because this is the first [new] US-bound passenger route in 21 years [for CAL], this new service has special meaning for China Airlines," said CAL chairman Lee Yun-ling (李雲寧) during an inauguration ceremony at CKS International Airport. Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三), American Institute in Taiwan Director Douglas Paal and CAL officials also attended the
ceremony.
■ Tourism
South Koreans courted
Tourism Bureau Director Su Cheng-tien (蘇成田) said yesterday he hopes the number of tourists from South Korea can be increased substantially over three years. Su made the remarks at the opening of the 19th Conference on Taiwan-South Korean Tourist Exchanges held in Hualien County. Su said South Koreans made about 60,000 visits to Taiwan in the first five months of this year, compared to more than 100,000 visits made by Taiwanese to South Korea during the same period. "We'll make every possible effort to attract more tourist arrivals from South Korea in the coming years," Su said. The annual meeting brought together travel service operators who expressed their hope that direct air links between the two countries can resume as early as possible to facilitate tourist exchanges.
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,