■ Politics
KMT warns over march
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday cautioned against turning the Democratic Progressive Party-sponsored March 26 protest march into a pro-independence rally. KMT caucus whip Chen Chieh (陳杰) said that if the march, aimed at showing the people's displeasure with China's "Anti-Secession" Law, turns into a pro-independence rally, it will confuse the focus of the event and bring other adverse effects. The KMT is asking that all participants be rational, Chen said.
■ Foreign affairs
Law complicates EU debate
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said yesterday that China's recent adoption of an "Anti-Secession" Law regarding Taiwan has complicated the lifting of the EU's arms embargo against Beijing. The law has "created quite a difficult political environment," Straw told the British ITV television channel. "Politically there are problems and these problems have actually got more difficult rather than less difficult, not least because there hasn't been much movement by China in respect of human rights," Straw said. Asked whether the law would delay the lifting of the arms embargo against China, Straw said only that the question "is not on the agenda of the European Council this week."
■ Politics
Chiu to leave MAC April 1
Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman and Spokesman Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) officially announced yesterday that he would be leaving his current post to run for commissioner of his native Taichung County as the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) candidate. Chiu's last day at the council will be April 1. His successor is Ketagalan Institute vice president You Ying-lung (游盈隆), also a veteran member of the DPP. On Friday Chiu handed in his letter of resignation to Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), who agreed to let him go. Chiu will leave the council after serving just 10 months.
■ Foreign Affairs
Lu visits Florida
Taiwan Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) arrived in Miami Sunday for a transit stop on her way back to Taipei after concluding a two-leg Central America diplomatic tour that took her to El Salvador and Guatemala. Lu was greeted by William Brown, acting chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan -- the top US liaison officer with Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic ties -- and David Lee (李大維), Taiwan's representative to the US, upon her arrival at Miami International Airport from Guatemala aboard a charter flight. Lu dined with Taiwan expatriates in the Miami region in the evening. She is scheduled to visit the US National Hurricane Center and the Fort Lauderdale city government and harbor facilities.
■ Health
Data posted on Web site
The Department of Health yesterday published medical-service quality indicators on a new Web site, hoping to provide an accessible guide on hospitals' healthcare quality. The Web site (www.hcquality.helthe.net/) offers general information on the healthcare quality of medical centers, hospitals and clinics. However, only a handful of hospitals and medical centers posted the results of patients' satisfaction surveys. Health officials said that they hope to include more data -- such as the number of available beds, registration fees and mortality rate of in-patients of individual hospitals -- on the site, if hospitals agree.
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