Taiwan will seek ways to assist Kosovo in its rebuilding efforts but is still mulling over the best way to play a role in the project, said Sun Wen-cheng (宋文城), deputy director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of European Affairs yesterday.
Asked if Taiwan would consider giving money or humanitarian assistance through non-governmental organizations (NGO) such as the International Cooperation Development Fund instead of using official channels, Sun said it was still up in the air, but added: "There are some things that NGOs cannot do."
In 1998, Taiwan tried to donate US$300 million to Kosovo but was prevented from attending the donor's conference by the international community.
Taiwan granted Kosovo official recognition on Feb. 19, two days after it declared independence from Serbia. However, Taiwan was deleted from the thank-you list posted on a Kosovar non-government Web site within a few hours because of interference from China.
Sun said that Taiwan still maintains contact with some Kosovo officials, but that not much progress had been made because the country has yet to establish a foreign ministry.
At the same press conference, Sun dispelled recent rumors that Beijing was ready to normalize relations with the Holy See ahead of the Olympic Games in August.
"The Vatican has made it clear that it will not establish official ties with China before the Olympics. Taiwan-Vatican ties remain firm and stable," he said.
Sun, however, said the Vatican and Beijing had reached a compromise over the issue of appointing Chinese bishops.
Sun also said that a number of European Parliament members and other retired officials are scheduled to arrive in Taiwan this month to observe the election. The names of the foreign observers might not be released until shortly before the poll, he 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
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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