■ Diplomacy
Dominican envoy returns
New Dominican Republic Ambassador Victor Manuel Sanchez Pena presented his credentials to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in a ceremony held at the Presidential Office yesterday. This is the second time that Sanchez has served as his country's resident envoy in Taiwan and Chen welcomed his return. "I hope you'll feel at home in Taiwan. You'll see amazing progress in various aspects. When you left Taiwan four years ago, construction of the Taipei 101 Tower had just got underway. Today, it has been completed and recognized as the world's tallest building," Chen said. Chen recalled that he met with Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez Reyna while attending Panamanian President Martin Torrijos' inauguration ceremony in Panama City in September.
■ Defense
Landmine bill reviewed
The Legislative Yuan's National Defense Committee finished a review yesterday of a bill aimed at controlling the production and use of land-mines in Taiwan. According to the bill, all landmines must be destroyed within four years, with the exception of those intended for training and research purposes. In addition, landmines deployed in minefields must be located and removed completely within 10 years, the bill stipulates.
■ Crime
Money laundering pact inked
Taiwan has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Albania on cooperation in fighting money laundering, the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) said yesterday. The agreement was signed by Liu Hsin-tai (劉新太), director of the MJIB's Money Laundering Prevention and Control Center, and Lutfi Minxhozi, director of Albania's Anti-Money Laundering Commission, on behalf of their respective governments, MJIB officials said. The two sides exchanged instruments of approval of the accord by mail on Nov. 25, the officials said. Under the terms of the MOU, the officials said, the two sides will exchange intelligence about suspicious financial deals and assist each other in efforts to prevent money laundering and other financial crimes. Both Taiwan and Albania are member states of the Egmont Group, an international alliance of financial intelligence units set up to combat money laundering and relevant economic crimes. MJIB officials said the alliance has been exhorting its member states to sign bilateral cooperative agreements to upgrade efficiency in the global campaign against money laundering and other economic crimes.
■ Culture
Band heads to Rose Parade
The Taipei First Girls Senior High School Marching Band is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on Dec. 28 to take part in the New Year's US Rose Parade to be held in Pasadena Jan. 1. The 165-member band will be one of only two foreign bands invited to take part in the annual Rose Parade. It will also be the second time the band has been invited to the Rose Parade in 10 years. Prior to the Rose Parade, the band is scheduled to give a performance at Disneyland in Anaheim, California on Dec. 30, making it the first band from Taiwan to perform at the famous attraction. School alumni based on the US west coast have scrambled to help play host to the students from Taipei. The band traveled to Britain and France in December 2002 to stage a series of performances at the invitation of schools in those two countries.
■ Earthquakes
Two tremors hit east coast
Two moderate earthquakes jolted the southeast of the country yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau said, but no damage or injuries were immediately reported. The first quake had a magnitude of 5.0, while the second, following just 10 minutes later, had a magnitude of 4.7, the bureau said. Both quakes had their epicenter just off the coast of Taitung, about 24km east of Yuli in Hualien County, the bureau said. Yuli is about 180km southeast of Taipei.
■ Agriculture
Officials push oranges
The Council of Agriculture announced yesterday that
it will offer big prizes to buyers of Taiwan's oranges in yet another bid to promote the overproduced fruit. Officials said that from today until Feb. 15, those who buy 3kg of fresh oranges or more than 1.8 liters of fresh orange juice in supermarkets run by farmers' associations or in designated supermarkets will be eligible to enter a ticket draw. The officials said the prizes will include
a 42-inch plasma TV, BenQ mobile phones, bicycles and supermarket coupons, as well as prizewinning organic rice. The winners will be announced on Feb. 28.
■ Government
Online gazette available
Government gazettes will
be available online starting from Jan. 3 next year, Research, Development and Evaluation Commission Chairman Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊雄) announced yesterday. The public will have one-stop access to the latest government notices, reports and other information by checking
the gazette Web site at gazette.nat.gov.tw, which will be updated on a daily basis, Yeh 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
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,