■ Charity
Businesses pitch in
Businesses have stepped
up disaster relief efforts in
the wake of Tropical Storm Mindulle by donating goods and cash to the Taiwan Red Cross. TECO Electric and Machinery Co yesterday donated NT$5 million
in household appliances
and has a fund to sponsor children affected by the crisis. Watson's Personal Care Stores and GlaxiSmithKline also made a combined donation of NT$1 million. Food chain MOS Burger launched a drive yesterday to encourage donations, saying that it will donate NT$1
to relief efforts for each hamburger purchased.
■ Charity
Call for volunteer tutors
The King Car Education Foundation is calling for college students to volunteer time this summer to help children affected by Tropical Storm Mindulle. The plans
of many children to study or attend summer camps this summer have been disrupted by the storm, foundation representatives said yesterday. Camp locations
or study materials may have been damaged during this week's crisis, and some families are finding themselves in financial difficulties that would prevent their children from going on summer holidays. The foundation is planning a series of one-week summer camps for children living in the center and the south of the country. The foundation is asking volunteer college students and teachers to teach at the camps. Students and teachers from all disciplines who can
speak basic English
are encouraged to apply.
After undergoing training, volunteers will be sent to affected areas to teach for one week at a time. To apply, contact the foundation at 02-2368-0273, ext.111 and ask for Ms. Chien or Ms. Chang.
■ Crime
MOJ cracks down on bribery
The Ministry of Justice yesterday launched a campaign targeting bribery during December's legislative elections. The ministry
said that prosecutors have established a well-organized network with vote captains. The network will work
to gather information and evidence related to vote-buying and bribery during the campaign. Officials from the ministry said that in addition to information-gathering, prosecutors will also work on preventing bribery by talking to political figures who run campaigns while acting as vote captains.
■ Culture
Lu to join NY orchestra
Lu Kuan-cheng (盧冠呈), a Taiwanese-born violinist, has beaten more than 400 of his peers from around the world to secure a place in the New York Philharmonic. The 23-year-old violinist is the first Taiwanese musician to be recruited into the orchestra
in its 100-year history. He is
also the youngest member of
the orchestra. His virtuosity
has been acclaimed by Lorin Mazel, the orchestra's music director and conductor. Lu traveled to the US in 1997
and studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Lu received a full scholarship at the Manhattan Conservatory of Music, where he eventually obtained a master's degree.
Lu has received many awards during his career, including the top prize in the ASTA string music contest.
■ Bureaucracy
Professor appointed
National Taiwan University (NTU) psychology professor Wu Ying-chang (吳英璋) has been appointed the next Examination Yuan secretary-general, officials said yesterday. Examination
Yuan President Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) invited Wu to take the post and Wu accepted, officials said.
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