■ Weather
Typhoon Meari approaching
Under Typhoon Meari's influence, Taiwan's north and northeast will see more rain for the next two days, the Central Weather Bureau predicted. If the typhoon maintains its course, it will be roughly 120km east of the Ryukyu Islands by 2pm today. The Bureau was keeping an eye on its course and will announce today whether the storm will hit the country. The storm's chance of hitting Taiwan depends on the how the high pressure system evolves in the North Pacific Ocean, the Bureau said.
■ Military
US: carrier no threat to China
The US deployment of another nuclear aircraft carrier in the Pacific should not be of any concern to China, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Friday. Emerging from a briefing at the House of Representatives, Armitage was asked by journalist to comment on a report made by Admiral Thomas B. Fargo, commander of the US Pacific Command, to Congress the previous day that an additional US carrier strike group would be stationed in the Pacific. "Our deployments of different carriers and other naval assets are done transparently and openly, this is not a threat to anyone," Armitage said.
■ Diplomacy
Panama ties not threatened
Amid rumors that Panama may cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan because of pressure from Beijing, Taiwan's ambassador to Panama David Hu (胡正堯) said Friday that Taiwan-Panama relations remain sound and that bilateral links will continue to improve. Hu made the comments to reporters after People First Party (PFP) Legislator Sun Ta-chien (孫大千) asked at an interpellation session about a rumor alleging that Panama would suspend its diplomatic ties with Taiwan following the US presidential election in November. Hu said that he had heard nothing about the matter and expressed his confidence that Taiwan-Panama relations will remain in good shape.
■ Society
Beating children opposed
The Humanistic Education Foundation kicked off a campaign against corporal punishment in Kaohsiung City yesterday with the goal of "building a country that does not beat its children." According to foundation leader Shih Ying (史英), punishing children physically is harmful to the growth of children, whom he said represent the nation's future. Shih said the foundation will promote the campaign in different counties and cities around the nation to join forces with like-minded people to push for legislation to outlaw corporal punishment.
■ Politics
Independence criticized
Singapore cautioned Taiwan Friday against "baiting China" by pushing for independence, and urged the UN to prevent relations between Taipei and Beijing spiralling out of control. "The push towards independence by certain groups in Taiwan is most dangerous because it will lead to war with mainland China and drag in other countries," Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo (楊榮文) told world leaders gathered at the UN General Assembly. "The international community should also not allow the deteriorating relationship across the Taiwan Strait to get out of control," Yeo said. Like in the Middle East, the interna-tional community has a strong vested interest in supporting a peaceful resolution of cross-strait conflict," Yeo 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
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
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,
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