■ TRANSPORT
Alishan railway to reopen
The Alishan Forest Railway is expected to resume full operations on Friday, the Chiayi Forest District Office said yesterday. The railway has been closed since June, when a landslide destroyed one of the tunnels along the route. The maintenance crews repairing the tunnel have experienced problems because of two earthquakes in July and the heavy rains brought by typhoons Sepat and Krosa that caused more landslides in the surrounding areas, damaging both the railway tracks and roads. The office said the crews have completed the installation of protective layers both inside and outside the tunnel, so that falling rocks would not crush the tunnel structure. The office originally estimated that the construction would be completed next March.
■ CRIME
Taichung tops vote-buying
Prosecutorial authorities have handled 3,597 vote-buying cases involving a total of 5,948 defendants during the run-up to next month's legislative elections, Vice Justice Minister Chu Nan (朱楠) said yesterday. The figures, which cover data available as of Friday, show that the Taichung Prosecutors Office has handled the largest number of cases, at 779, while the Tainan Prosecutors Office and the Yunlin Prosecutors Office have handled the second and third-largest number of cases, at 351 and 314 respectively. On cases related to March's presidential election, prosecutorial authorities nationwide have handled 59 cases involving a total of 104 defendants, Chu said.
■ DIPLOMACY
Hau announces Tokyo visit
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday that he would visit Tokyo in February to attend a marathon at the invitation of his Tokyo counterpart, Shintaro Ishihara. Hau made the announcement following a meeting at Taipei City Hall with Tokyo Metropolitan Councilor Takashi Kabayama, who has been in Taiwan since Saturday heading a delegation of the Japan-Taiwan Friendship and Culture Promotion Association. On Sunday the Japanese group took part in the Taipei International Marathon, which drew tens of thousands of local and foreign runners. At the meeting with Hau, Kabayama said their participation in the Taipei marathon was in preparation for the upcoming Tokyo International Marathon, which is scheduled for Feb. 14. He invited Hau to visit Tokyo and take part in the annual race. In response, Hau said he would make the trip but would not compete as he is not a runner.
■ TRANSPORT
MOTC to amend regulations
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said yesterday that it would amend its traffic regulations in order to be able to issue an operational license to a mobile cargo X-ray inspection system purchased by the Ministry of Finance (MOF). The system is installed in a large truck and is used to examine containers for illegal items. In 2005, the MOF bought two of the vehicles for NT$200 million (US$6 million) in order to inspect containers at Keelung Port. A report published in the United Daily News yesterday said that officials at Keelung Port have not been able to use the vehicles for the last two years because they have yet to secure licenses from the MOTC. The MOTC said the height and width of the vehicles exceeded specifications laid down in the road safety regulations. Because of this, the MOTC has been unable to issue a license, it said.
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,