■ Society
Missing kayakers found
Two sea kayakers who went missing during an ocean journey from Penghu to Chiayi County were found safe yesterday, rescuers said. While Wu Chao-chen (吳兆振) was sent back to Makung (馬公) in Penghu at 6:30am after he was discovered by members of the coast guard, Chang Tien-ming (張天明) was found at 7:15am near Wangkung (王功), Changhua County, by an Air Force helicopter and later airlifted to an airbase in Taichung. The pair were part of a nine-member sea kayaking team that set off early on Thursday from Penghu for a journey across the Taiwan Strait. The team had planned to spend 12 hours crossing a 45km stretch of water to reach Chiayi County's Tungshih Township (東石) before dark.
■ Tourism
`Love Boat' fares may go up
The Kaohsiung City Government is considering raising ticket prices for the "Love Boats" plying the Love River (愛河), which is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the south, city officials said yesterday. The city government also plans to sell tickets for the ferries -- tickets are now sold by private operators -- and extend the routes they cruise in an effort to reduce deficits the ferry service has suffered since it began in May 2004. There are 15 ferries that operate sightseeing cruises on the Love River. Although the service attracts tourists and generates a turnover of NT$18 million (US$546,860) a year, that income is still insufficient to cover the costs of fuel and management. Love Boat cruises attract some 410,000 passengers each year, with an average passenger count of 1,190 people per day.
■ CRIME
Warning on S Korean jobs
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) issued another call earlier this week urging those looking for jobs not to seek employment with unknown companies that may be seeking front men for unlawful activities in South Korea. Since the beginning of the year, the ministry has issued several press releases urging the public to remain on guard against the possibility of being unwittingly set up as a front for an illegally operating company, group or individual based in South Korea. MOFA officials said that since September last year, more than 100 Taiwanese have been arrested by South Korean police for allegedly opening dummy bank accounts, receiving suspicious funds from banks or using fake credit cards for purchases made in that country. Some of the Taiwanese arrested have been given prison terms ranging from one to three years by South Korean judges, while others remain in custody at detention centers awaiting trial or are appealing their cases, MOFA officials said.
■ POLITICS
Forum to be held in Taipei
The 22nd Forum of Speakers of the Legislative Bodies of the Central American and Caribbean Basin is scheduled to take place in Taipei from Monday to Wednesday, Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday. Legislative speakers from Dominica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama and Belize, as well as three vice speakers, will attend the forum, Wang said. The speaker and vice speaker of Costa Rica, which broke off relations with Taiwan earlier this month, will not join the conference, Wang said. Taiwan became an observer at the biannual forum in 1999 and first hosted the forum in Taipei in 2000, Wang said, adding that this will be the second time the nation hosts the event.
Staff writer, with agencies";
■ Society
Chusha Bay to stage party
Cube Productions, a promotion company for outdoor activities and concerts, will hold an overnight beach party starting this afternoon at Chusha Bay (珠沙灣) in Taipei County's Chinshan Township (金山) -- about 40 minutes drive from downtown Taipei. According to organizers, admission is free but participants cannot bring glass bottles to the beach and will be required to take one bag of trash with them when they leave the party. This is the sixth year in a row that Cube Productions has organized a large-scale outdoor dance concert at a beach resort. Called "Summer Aquarium 2007", the party begins at 3pm and will end at 4am tomorrow.
■ Politics
Ministry approves new party
The Ministry of the Interior earlier this week approved the establishment of "Taiwan Kuomintang" (台灣國民黨), making it the 127th political party in the country. Party chairman Kan Nai-di (甘乃迪) said the party held an initiation assembly in Taoyuan County on May 27 and that it had nothing to do with another group which in July 2005 claimed in Nantou that it would form a party also bearing the name Taiwan Kuomintang. Kan said that party never came into existence after a failure to complete the necessary legal procedures. Kan said people identifying with Taiwan were welcome to join his party, adding that so far it had recruited some 1,000 members. The party supports a UN bid under the name "Taiwan" and is resolved to defend Taiwan against China's military threats and cultural propaganda, he said. The party acronym is TWKMT, Kan said. He said that he hoped that in the future, people would clarify whether they meant the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT, 中國國民黨) or the Taiwan Kuomintang when talking about the "Kuomintang," the name by which the KMT is generally known in Taiwan.
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