■ Legislature
Bill would hike cost of crime
Criminals and those harboring them should pay part of the cost of police investigations in order to increase the cost of committing or abetting crimes, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Wuei-chou (林為洲) said yesterday. Under the draft bill he proposes, expenses include overtime pay for investigators, travel and insurance costs, the rental or requisition of search dogs, search equipment, vehicles or land. Lin said he plans to make public details of the draft on May 1 and finish collecting signatures to support his proposal by May 15. He hopes the bill will become law by the end of this legislative session.
■ Foreign affairs
Envoy inaugurated
Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉), a professor in Soochow University's department of German language and culture, was inaugurated as the country's fourth representative to Germany yesterday. He will fly to Germany on May 4. Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) said at Shieh's inaugural ceremony that he has great expectations of the new representative's performance. "We hope he will put more creativity and enthusiasm into our country's diplomacy," Chen said. Shieh, linguistically talented and one of the country's favorite talk show hosts, said the interests of Taiwan's 23 million people will be his top concern in his diplomatic post. The representative said he purchased ceramics from Yingge, a Taipei County town with 200 years of ceramics history, as gifts for officials, journalists and other figures he will be meeting in Berlin.
■ Mine clearing
Two Zimbabweans killed
Two Zimbabwean mine disposal technicians were killed and another was injured yesterday on Kinmen while removing landmines for a dam construction project, an official said. One of the men was carrying a mine when he slipped, triggering the explosion of over 20 others in a storage facility, said Wong Chi-bao (翁自保), chief of Kinmen water factory overseeing the dam project. Thousands of landmines were planted on the island as a precaution against invasion by Chinese troops. The technicians had been helping to clear the landmines from coastal areas of the island, where there is also a military base. Those killed were identified as Honderwa Onewll Nhamotnesu, Chimbundo Fanwell, while Napwanya Isaac suffered slight facial injuries.
■ Constitution
Think tank to host debates
Taiwan Thinktank, a private policy research institute, will hold three debates on amending the Constitution ahead of the May 14 election of representatives to the National Assembly, which is to approve the amendments. Taiwan Thinktank plans to hold the debates starting this Thursday, and on May 6 and May 9, and will invite public television to broadcast them live, an official from the think tank said yesterday. Recent polls have shown that most people are not even aware that the National Assembly will be convened or when the elections are. As such, the think tank decided to organize the debates to inform the public. Representatives of the two parties supporting the constitutional reform, the Democratic Progressive Party and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and those parties opposing the reform, including the People First Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union, will take part in the debates, according to think tank officials.
■ Politics
Lien, Soong need Chen's OK
Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) said yesterday that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) must consult with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) or the Democratic Progressive Party administration prior to their visits to China. Lee added that only after the country has a consensus on this matter will the two opposition leaders' visits have any meaning or benefit for the people. Lee said that he has no idea what Lien and Soong might be thinking about regarding their "historic" China visits, but since President Chen has said that he would offer his blessing for the two opposition leaders' forthcoming visits to China if they faithfully abide by domestic laws throughout their trips, Lien and Soong should fully exchange opinions with the president beforehand.
■ Society
Charity opens in Philippines
The Taiwan Fund for Children and Families, a Taiwan branch of the US Christian Children's Fund (CCF) and thus known as CCF/Taiwan, has recently set up an operational center in Mindanao, the Philippines, to help impoverished children there. CCF/Taiwan is the largest child and family welfare organization in Taiwan and has helped over 100,000 local children living in impoverished families. It is at present sponsoring more than 27,000 needy local youths. CCF/Taiwan Executive Director Chen Pang-hung (陳邦弘) said that as Taiwan has prospered economically, the number of sponsors contributing to the fund has risen to the extent that the charity can now branch out into other poverty-stricken nations.
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,