■ Society
Suicidal man kills woman
A man survived a suicide bid when he jumped off a 23-storey building but killed a woman motorist when he landed on her car beneath, a report said yesterday. The 44-year-old, identified only by his surname Chang, leapt from the high-rise in south-ern Tainan city Saturday, hitting the compact car which was parked outside, TVBS cable news network said. Chang only suffered fractures to his feet, but the woman died before emer-gency services could get her to hospital. Chang's mother apologized to the victim's grieving family. "He [my son] wanted to die. He did not but the other person died," she told reporters, adding that her son had a 10-year record of manic depression. The television station said the victim's family would seek millions of dollars in damages while Chang may face charges.
■ Politics
TSU wants street renamed
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) candidate for the year-end legislative elections Huang Shih-chuo (黃適卓) called on the Taipei City Government yesterday to change the name of Guangzhou Street (廣州街) in front of Lungshan Temple to "Lungshan Temple Street." Huang, who will be fighting for a legislative seat in the Taipei southern constituency, made the appeal after a campaign rally held at the square in front of Lungshan Temple. According to Huang, the street was designated as "Lungshan Temple Street" after the temple was inaugurated in 1740, but the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)government renamed it as "Guangzhu Street" in 1945. Huang noted that the statutes governing the designation of roads and streets require that all roads and streets in the city be designated in line with a province, city or famous river in China, adding that this "colonial clause" has not been revised because of opposition by the pan-blue camp, which controls the city council.
■ Diplomacy
Italian lawmakers to visit
Eight pro-Taiwan Italian lawmakers departed Rome Saturday for a six-day visit to Taiwan. The group, headed by Gianpaolo Landi di Chiavenna, a member of the Italian Assembly of Deputies and chairman of the pro-Taiwan group in the assembly, includes the vice president of the Deputies Assembly's Committee for Culture, Science and Education Affairs and three other pro-Taiwan deputies. During the visit, the lawmakers will meet with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and pay courtesy calls on the Executive Yuan and the Mainland Affairs Council. They will also visit the island of Kinmen and the National Palace Museum.
■ Technology
Delegation to go to Israel
A Taiwanese delegation headed by Chang Ching-sen (張景森), vice chairman of the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), arrived in Tel Aviv yesterday to study Israel's desalination techno-logy. Chang said the delegation will visit Israel's largest seawater desalination plant to gain a better understanding of its advanced procedures and waste water treatment technologies. Noting that Taiwan is planning to build a desalination facility in its outlying island county of Penghu to resolve water shortages there, Chang said he believes that his Israel study tour will be of great help to the Penghu desalination plant project. Chang's mission includes Huang Chin-shan (黃金山), a former head of the Ministry of Economic Affairs' water resource department who is now a CEPD adviser.
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,