■ Politics
Soong may meet with Lien
People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) may meet up with his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) counterpart Lien Chan (連戰) tomorrow at the earliest, the PFP caucus said yesterday. PFP caucus whip Chen Chih-bin (陳志彬) said that his caucus originally hoped to see the two leaders meet before last Saturday, the first anniversary of the election-eve assassination attempt of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮). Now they would like to see the meeting take place either tomorrow or Friday, or next week at the latest. Possible topics for the talk include party-to-party cooperation in the upcoming elections of National Assembly members, mayors and county commisioners; cross-strait relations and Taiwan-US relations.
■ Foreign Affairs
Lee knew of Singapore snub
Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑) admitted yesterday that he knew in advance about the Singaporean government's decision to refuse a Taiwanese naval squadron's request to berth in its harbor, but still included Singapore on the schedule for the squadron's 101-day global voyage. Lee told lawmakers that he learned of the Singaporean government's decision before the squadron embarked on the trip to visit seven of the nation's diplomatic allies in the beginning of this month. The fleet will also pay refueling visits to several countries in the Indian Ocean that recognize Beijing. According to Lee, the Singaporean government's decision resulted from its displeasure with the Taiwanese media's premature exposure of the event before the journey.
■ Seismic events
Chengkung near epicenter
A moderate earthquake jolted southeastern Taiwan yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau said. No damage or injuries were immediately reported. The 4.4-magnitude quake was centered 10km northwest of Chengkung, Taitung County, the bureau said.
■ National Defense
Chinese ship warned off
The Coastguard Administration said yesterday that a Chinese spy ship intruded into waters around Taiwan before being shepherded away by navy vessels. "The ship sailed away after it was approached by naval and coastguard ships," a coastguard official said. A Chinese-language newspaper said the vessel, the Xue Long, was first spotted on Sunday, prompting the navy to send frigates to follow it closely. Military analysts say China has stepped up underwater and maritime surveillance of Taiwan.
■ Politics
Registration to open
The Central Election Commission (CEC) announced yesterday it will begin to accept candidacy registration for the May 14 National Assembly election this weekend. Only political parties or private alliances composed of more than 20 members are eligible to register their individual candidates with the commission because seats in the nation's first-ever and probably last mission-oriented National Assembly will be allotted to political parties or groups in proportion to the ballots they garner in the election. According to the assembly election rules, political parties or groups must deposit NT$100,000 in guaranty for each candidate they intend to nominate while registering their candidacy with the commission.
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,