■ Diplomacy
Chai asks David Lee to quit
Taiwan's representative to Washington David Lee (李大維) should be replaced for failing to dissipate US concerns over President Chen Shui-bian's statement about getting rid of Taiwan's National Unification Council, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) said yesterday in Chiayi. Speaking at a news conference, Chai claimed that Lee had failed to do his duty by not taking any action to calm Washington fears after US officials expressed alarm at Chen's statement, and for failing to solicit their support for Chen's proposal. Instead of explaining Chen's stance to US officials, congressmen and opinion leaders, Chai said, Lee kept silent after a State Department official said they were not consulted in advance and were therefore surprised by Chen's Jan. 29 statement.
■ Society
Sun's condition improves
Former Premier Sun Yun-suan (孫運璿), hospitalized since Jan. 30, showed some improvement in his condition yesterday but was still in critical condition, according to doctors at the Veterans General Hospital in Taipei. The 93-year-old senior adviser to the president has been receiving treatment for an acute myocardial infraction with heart and lung complications. Sun's blood pressure, heartbeat, temperature and blood oxygen levels remained within normal ranges, although he was still on an artificial respirator. The doctors said Sun's condition was stable and that he was conscious and able to communicate by blinking. Sun was premier from 1978 to 1984.
■ Reconstruction
Quake commission closes
The 921 Earthquake Post-Disaster Recovery Commission headquartered in the central county of Nantou closed operations on Saturday after completing nearly all major reconstruction projects. Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Kuo Yao-chi (郭瑤琪), chief executive of the recovery commission, removed the commission's signboard in a ceremony held at the commission's office in Chunghsing New Village (中興新村), Nantou County, the region that bore the brunt of the magnitude 7.3 earthquake that devastated central and northern Taiwan on Sept. 21, 1999. Addressing the ceremony, Su said that thanks to the concerted efforts of the general public and the private sector over the past six years, post-disaster relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction work has come to a smooth end. The recovery commission was established in June, 2000 shortly after the Democratic Progressive Party took power.
■ Society
`Dog doctors' help kids
A Taiwan dog club is renting out "dog doctors" to handicapped kids and mental patients to help them regain self-confidence and the ability to interact with society, a local newspaper said yesterday. The club in Linkou has trained six golden retrievers and two border collies to rent out to handicapped kids and patients suffering from various mental disorders, the United Evening News said. The dogs are rented out free of charge. Their owner, Bao Ge (or Brother Bao), rents out his dogs to people all over Taiwan for up to a week, the report said. Bao Ge said he began raising dogs ten years ago and knows that dogs can help heal mental trauma, so he launched the "Dog Doctor for Rent" service. Last year he rented out his golden retrievers to a group of handicapped kids who had a fear of going to school. After renting the "dog doctors" for two months, the condition of the children improved sufficiently enough for them to return to school.
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