■ Diplomacy
Fugitive removed from post
The Straits Exchange Foundation on Wednesday removed fugitive Rebar Group chairman Wang You-theng (王又曾) as one of the foundation's trustees. The foundation held a board meeting on Wednesday to discuss Wang's post. Secretary-General You Ying-long (游盈隆) said Wang's involvement in the embezzlement scandal had damaged the image of the foundation and it had asked Wang to resign but had not yet received any response. The foundation therefore decided to revoke Wang's position, You said.
■ Taxation
NHI deductibles raised
Taxpayers will be able to claim National Health Insurance (NHI) premiums as full tax deductibles when they file their income taxes this year. Deductions from NHI premiums used to be capped at NT$24,000. "You can deduct the full amount of what you paid," said Lai Li-wen (賴立文), an employee at the NHI bureau. "But as is the case with other deductible items, only those who choose to itemize their deductions will benefit. Those who choose to use simplified, standard deductions will miss out." Based on a sample tax calculation provided by the bureau, a family of four with a monthly income of NT$60,800 and annual NHI premium payments of NT$38,940 would be able to save NT$5,179 in taxes under the new rules.
■ Media
KMT sues officials over TTV
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday filed a lawsuit, accusing Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), Government Information Office Director Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) and Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) of corruption in the the sale of Taiwan Television Enterprise Ltd's (TTV, 台視) shares. Lai Kuo-chou (賴國洲), the former chairman of TTV, and Sumio Hasegawa, an official at Japan's Fuji Television Network, said on Sunday that Cheng and Chen had arranged a lunch in January during which they suggested that Fuji transfer its TTV shares to the Liberty Times Group (the parent company of the Taipei Times). "Cheng is a member of the committee in charge of reviewing the qualifications of applicants bidding for TTV shares. His interference in this case violated related laws and regulations," KMT Legislator Hsu Shao-ping (徐少萍) said.
■ Crime
Chiu's respite short-lived
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi's (邱毅) happiness was short-lived yesterday as his hopes of putting off reporting to prison to serve his sentence were dashed. Chiu was sentenced to 14 months in prison on March 19, 2004, for leading a crowd trying to break through the gates of the Kaohsiung District Court. He later appealed to the Taiwan High Court's Kaohsiung branch, arguing that the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office asked him to report to prosecutors and begin his jail time on April 3 despite the fact he had yet to receive his verdict. The court granted Chiu's appeal and asked prosecutors to reschedule Chiu's first day of jail time. Acknowledging there was an obvious glitch in the process, the high court's Kaohsiung spokesman Wang Kwang-chao (王光照) said judges decided to suspend the initial order for Chiu to begin his jail time on April 3 and had asked prosecutors to refile another notification. Later yesterday Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office spokesman Chung Chung-hsiao (鍾忠孝) said that prosecutors would do as the judges requested, but Chiu would still need to report to prison on April 3.
■ Politics
Plenary session dismissed
The legislature's extra plenary session, which was scheduled to review the government budget for this year and the Central Election Commission (CEC) bill, was dismissed yesterday without producing any results. As lawmakers failed to reach a consensus on the set-up of the election institution and the budget request for the purchase of weapons systems from the US, the legislature put the bills on hold yet again on Wednesday. By law the legislature is required to complete its review of the government's annual budget request one month before the start of the fiscal year. This year's budget request should have been reviewed by the end of last November. Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) told the press that he did not know when the budget would clear the legislature.
■ Weather
Cold front due on Tuesday
The Central Weather Bureau said another cold front is looming and will affect the country on Tuesday. The chance of rain will increase nationwide, the bureau said, and temperatures will drop significantly. It said it will be sunny until Sunday and it could get as warm as 30oC. There still could be rain in the northeast and fog in the western part of the island.
■ Crime
Drug `mules' nabbed
Two people were arrested at Kaohsiung International Airport late on Wednesday for allegedly bringing 3.54kg of heroin from Thailand, police said yesterday. The narcotics had a street value of more than NT$100 million (US$3.03 million) and were concealed in bags of coffee powder. Police said they found the drugs in the luggage of Wang Ching-shun (王清瞬), 53, and Yen Hui-ying (顏惠英), 40.
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
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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