■ Military
Officers not invited
Army Commander-in-Chief Hu Chen-pu (胡鎮埔) yesterday said he has not invited military officers to his daughter's wedding next Saturday to avoid suspicion that they might use the opportunity to bribe him in return for promotion. Hu was probably thinking of the case of the former director of the Department of Student Military Training Sung Wen (宋文). Sung was found guilty of accepting bribes during his son's wedding three years ago and dismissed from his job. Hu said he had sent out only 500 invitations to his classmates at the academy because "these classmates have already retired from active service." "I have told my fellow officers not to come nor to send gifts," he added. "Whoever comes or sends gifts will definitely fail during the annual evaluation this year."
■ Society
Kaohsiung wants games
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) will lead a delegation to Torino, Italy, today to solicit support for the city's bid to host the World University Games in 2011. Chen said she hopes to take stock of former Kaohsiung acting mayor Chen Chi-mai's (陳其邁) experience in Germany in 2005 in winning the right for Kaohsiung to host the 2009 World Games. Five cities are bidding to host the 2011 World University Games and Kaohsiung will face stiff competition from other candidates such as Shenzhen, China, Kaohsiung Organizing Committee executive director Chen Yi-heng (陳以亨) said. However, Kaohsiung will have the advantages of an already completed 55,000-seat stadium as well as an athletes village that can accommodate 10,000 after hosting the World Games, he said.
■ Tourism
Chiayi to host lantern fest
Chiayi County will host this year's lantern festival, which will be held from March 3 to March 11. "The lantern festival attracted 5 million people last year, making it the most well-attended festival in Taiwan," the head of the tourism bureau Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) said. Chiayi's application to host the festival this year was favored because of the easy access provided by the newly completed high speed rail, she added. "Visitors are assured of a smooth trip to the show," Lai said. "Those taking the high speed rail will be able to take a shuttle bus from the station straight to the festival site." The showpiece lantern this year will be an 18m Formosan wild boar wearing a gold ingot on its tail to represent prosperity. "It will be a true Alishan mountain pig with tusks," Chiayi County Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) said.
■ Military
Generals fail tests
Three Army brigade commanders were relieved of their positions recently after their units failed a comprehensive combat capability assessment, Army Commander-in-Chief Hu Chen-pu (胡鎮埔) said yesterday. Noting that the assessment used objective criteria in determining military personnel promotions and transfers, Hu said the new merit-only system would help prevent favoritism within the military. The evaluation covers two areas -- tangible and intangible combat abilities, Hu said, with the assessment jointly conducted by the Army's deputy commanding general, the presidents of various military academies, senior executives of test centers and commanding officers of military units. Three of the brigades tested failed to attain the passing grade of 70 out of 100. Their commanders, all major generals, have been trans-ferred to non-leadership posts.
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,