■ Defense
Trainers altered into fighters
The military has modified two locally manufactured aircraft to carry anti-ship missiles that could be used to attack China's main ports, Jane's Defence Weekly said in an article to be published on Jan. 1. Two AT-3A Tsu Chiang aircraft "have been modified to carry either Harpoon or locally produced Hsiung Feng II (Brave Wind II) anti-ship missiles," Jane's said. The aircraft have been modified by the Aerospace Industrial Development Corp, it said. Sixty of the aircraft were designed and built as two-seater trainers for the Air Force in the 1980s. "If Taiwan chooses to convert significant numbers of AT-3A into AT-3K anti-ship missile platforms it will place China's major ports within Taiwan's range," the weekly said.
■ Diplomacy
New BTCO head arriving
The new director-general of the British Trade and Cultural Office (BTCO), Michael Reilly, is expected to arrive today and take up his position on Monday. Reilly will succeed Derek Marsh, who left his post last Friday. Reilly's most recent posting was head of the ASEAN and Oceania Group, a BTCO press release said yesterday. Reilly, 50, began his career in the civil service in 1978 in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He has served in the British embassy in Seoul and in Manila.
■ Government
New court plan reviewed
A constitutional court would be established under the Judicial Yuan if draft amendments to the Organic Law of the Judicial Yuan (司法院組織法) that were given preliminary approval by the legislature's Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday become law. The new court's members could be composed of members of the Council of Grand Justices, lawmakers, those who have been involved in constitutional affairs for more than nine years or law professors with more than 20 years of teaching experience. The committee also agreed to let the Judicial Yuan set up a civil court, penal court, administrative court and disciplinary court. The committee also agreed to put Supreme Court, Supreme Administrative Court and Commission on the Disciplinary Sanctions of Public Functionaries under the supervision of the Judicial Yuan.
■ Society
Would-be crasher arrested
A man who tried to crash his car into the Presidential Building was arrested yesterday afternoon. Police officials said it was the second time this month that Wang Hui-chun (王惠群) had tried to attack the building. After his arrest Wang told the police that he wanted to petition President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) over a lawsuit that he had lost. Police said Wang will be fined for intruding into the Po-ai area and breaking a railing of the building. He could face other charges as well, they said.
■ Society
Lepers demand rights
Former residents of the Lo Sheng Sanatorium (樂生療養院) and several legislators gathered yesterday to press the ex-lepers demands before the Hansen's Disease patient rights draft law undergoes a second reading at the legislature today. The elderly residents were forcibly evicted from their long-time home in July from the Taipei County sanatorium because the site has been earmarked for a rapid transit station. Independent Legislator Kao Chin Su-mei (高金素梅) said that the government must compensate the residents, stop the sanatorium from being torn down and preserve it as a historical site for educational purposes.
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