■LEGISLATION
Bill seeks new powers
The president could be required to deliver “state of the union” addresses if the legislature passes amendments to a law governing legislative powers. The legislature’s Judicial and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday approved amendments to the Law Governing the Legislature’s Power (立法院職權行使法) that would empower lawmakers to request such an address by gathering the signatures of one-quarter of the legislature. The president would also be allowed to submit a request to brief legislators about national policies. The amendments will proceed to the plenary legislative session without further cross-party negotiations. Under the draft, the president would be required to send a copy of his address to legislators three days in advance. Lawmakers would be entitled to ask questions after the speech. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Ching-chih (吳清池) said that he looked forward to seeing president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) deliver such an address upon taking office on May 20 if the legal revisions are passed in time.
■OFFICIALS
Ma, Siew could see pay cut
President-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and vice president-elect Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) could see their salaries halved. The legislature’s Judiciary, Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday passed a preliminary review of the draft bill governing the terms of employment for the president and vice president. If the bill is passed, Ma will receive NT$462,780 a month and Siew NT$342,800. The draft will proceed to a full legislative sitting for the second reading without further cross-party negotiations.
■DIPLOMACY
Citizen still jailed in Japan
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that officials from Taiwan’s representative office in Japan had visited a Tibetan-Taiwanese activist who was detained for attempting to disrupt the Olympic torch relay, but said it was unclear when he would be released. “On Wednesday afternoon, ministry staff members met Tashi Tsering, who said he had received good care during detention and was grateful for the visit and concern” of the officials, ministry spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) said at a press briefing. Tashi Tsering, also vice chairman of the Taiwan chapter of the Tibetan Youth Congress, was detained for attempting to approach the Olympic torch during the flame relay in Nagano in central Japan last Saturday. After his initial 48-hour detention period was over, Tashi Tsering was interrogated by a prosecutor, who decided to extend his detention for another 10 days. Yeh said the prosecutor would decide whether to formally indict Tashi Tsering or file another extension for further investigation.
■HEALTH
Tainted coconuts missing
Fewer than 20 percent of the imported coconuts found earlier this week in Taipei County to contain residues of a banned substance had been located as of Wednesday, the county’s department of health said yesterday. The department said that it had tracked down only 193 cartons of the coconuts — some 16.9 percent of the total shipment. The department’s statistics showed that a total of 1,140 boxes of the tainted coconuts were imported from Thailand and distributed. Officials said all the coconuts seized by local governments would be destroyed. The Department of Health detected the fungicide Carbendazim in samples of the coconuts last week. Carbendazim is believed to affect hormone functions.
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,