■ Politics
Hsieh sets press conference
Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) is to hold a press conference today to name Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) president Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) as vice premier, according to a Central News Agency report last night. Wu, who was due to depart for Hawaii yesterday for a week-long APEC preparatory meeting, canceled his trip and is expected to show up at the press conference. Hsieh had earlier offered the job to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kun (江丙坤) and said he would give Chiang until Feb. 17 to accept. Chiang has also served as chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development.
■ Politics
Aides to finalize meeting
Top aides of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) are scheduled to meet today to finalize details of the much-anticipated Chen-Soong meeting. Secretary-General of the Presidential Office Yu Shyi-kun will meet with PFP Secretary-General Chin Chin-sheng (秦金生) at the Taipei Guest House to hammer out the date, venue, format and agenda. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whip Lai Ching-teh (賴清德) said recently that the DPP hopes the meeting could contribute to the passage of major bills related to people's livelihoods, in addition to addressing cross-strait issues. Meanwhile, PFP whip Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) said that his party will stand firm during the Chen-Soong meeting on the issue of Taiwan's status. Liu said all topics, including cross-strait affairs, should be open to discussion during that meeting.
■ National Security
Taipei's defenses boosted
In a move to guard against a possible lightening attack by China on Taipei, the government is redeploying marines from central Taiwan, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense will move the marines, called Brigade 66, to Linkou starting next month, the report said. The deployment would be completed before July, the paper said. Brigade 66 is currently deployed at the Ching Chuan Kang Airbase in Taichung. The ministry has increased the number of military police in Taipei, and set up an artillery and an armored battalion near the Sungshan airport, the paper said. Media reports have said that China has drawn up a Decapitation Plan to attack Taiwan and take control of the island within five days.
■ Education
Pact inked for HK center
Buddhist Master Hsing Yun (星雲), founder of the Fo Guang Shan Foundation for Buddhist Culture and Education, signed a cooperation agreement yesterday with Daniel Law, dean of the Faculty of Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, at Fo Guang Shan Temple in Kaohsiung County. The foundation will help the university to set up a Buddhism research center. The cooperation begins next month and runs to February 2010, with the foundation providing HK$1.2 million (US$725,000) each year to help the university promote the study of Buddhism. Master Hsing Yun noted that the establishment of the center represents a big step forward in world cultural exchanges and a milestone in the study of Buddhism. Chuo Chun-ying (卓春英), deputy public affairs director at the Presidential Office, who is an alumna of the university, said it would be good if the foundation set up more such centers in schools around the world as a way to promote cultural exchanges.
■ Tsunami
MOFA organizes event
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) will invite foreign ambassadors and envoys stationed in Taipei to pray for world peace in a traditional Taiwan folk activity tomorrow, a spokesman said Thursday. According to the MOFA official, foreign ambassadors and representatives, including those from various countries that were hit by the Dec. 26 earthquake and ensuing tsunami, will be invited to participate in the "sky lantern lighting" activity to be held tomorrow night in Pingsi township, Taipei County, to pray for world peace. Attending foreign diplomats will sign their names with calligraphy brushes on five huge lanterns that will be lit and allowed to rise into the sky, hot air balloon-style, in a gesture to appeal for world peace, the official said. The activity should help them gain a better understanding of Taiwan's traditions and lifestyles.
■ Society
Students face charges
Six college students, who staged a nude demonstration to protest the government's ignorance of the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol, may now face a charge of "offenses against morals" (妨害風化). To highlight their demonstration, the six students took off their underwear, leaving their private parts covered only by a piece of paper outside the Executive Yuan on Tuesday. However, police authorities have digitally recorded the nude protest, and have send the case to the Taiwan District Prosecutors' Office. Taipei District Prosecutors' Office Spokesman Lin Bang-liang (林邦樑) said if prosecutors consider the nude protest made people uncomfortable and disgusted, the students might be charged.
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
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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