■ Transportation
Drop `4' from train number
The high speed rail has developed so many problems that an official has suggested removing the numeral "4" -- considered unlucky -- from train numbers, local TV stations reported on Saturday. The suggestion to remove the numeral "4" (si, 四), which sounds similar to "death" (si, 死) in Mandarin, was made by Pang Chia-hua (龐家驊), director of the Bureau of High Speed Rail, cable TV channel ETTV reported. "Avoiding `4' is superstition, but since many of the trains which had problems had `4' in their numbers, maybe the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp should replace `4' with some other numeral," ETTV quoted Chu as saying. Since its launch on Jan. 5, the high speed rail has suffered from some minor delays. Out of the nine delays, seven happened on trains which have "4" in their line numbers.
■ Culture
Matou park breaks ground
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) presided over a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a cultural park in Matou Township (麻豆) in Tainan County. Under the sponsorship of the central government, the Tainan County Government decided to construct the cultural park in Shuicheitou District in Matou's eastern area, which used to be a port until early in the 19th century. During the ceremony, Chen promised that the central government would financially support the construction and development of the cultural park to preserve the Matou port site. He said that the old Matou port was culturally and historically valuable, and for many people, it bore certain significance in terms of feng shui due to a so-called "dragon throat" located there which is believed to bring good fortune to local residents. Construction of the park is estimated at NT$60 million (US$1.87 million).
■ Society
Dominican wins Ms Global
Mia Taveras from the Dominican Republic won the top prize in the first Miss Global City International Pageant held in Taiwan on Saturday. Taveras, an actress, beat 14 contestants from eight other countries to win the prize, which carries a cash prize, jewels and cosmetics worth NT$1 million (US$30,000). The first and second place went to two Taiwanese and the fourth place went to Uyanga Orchibat from Mongolia. Fifteen contestants from Taiwan, Mongolia, the Dominican Republic, Russia, Ukraine, the UK, Germany, South Africa and Bolivia took part in the Miss Global City International Pageant, held at the Universal Shopping Mall in Jhonghe City, Taipei County. Each country could send several contestants to represent different cities.
■ Society
Museum holds lectures
The National Palace Museum in Taipei is scheduled to hold a series of speeches in the coming few months to introduce the exhibition themes of its southern branch's six permanent galleries, a spokesman for the museum said yesterday. The museum's southern branch, which is currently under construction in Taibao Township (太保) in Chiayi County, is designed not only to house part of the museum's collection of Chinese art works but also to promote Asian arts and culture, the spokesman said. The lectures will cover a wide variety of topics on Asian tea culture, monochrome porcelain works, blue-and-white porcelain works, as well as Asian literature, Buddhism and weaving artifacts, to help the public gain an in-depth understanding of Asian arts and culture.
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,