■ PUBLISHING
Taiwan opts out of book fair
Taiwan decided yesterday not to take part in the Seoul International Book Fair 2008 a Taipei-based exhibitor said. Taiwan had registered with organizers of the Seoul International Book Fair 2008 to participate under the name “Taiwan” in the event scheduled for Wednesday to May 18 in the South Korean capital, said Lin Tsai-chueh (林載爵), chairman of the Taipei Book Fair Foundation. However, event organizers recently notified the foundation that Taiwan would have to participate under the name “Chinese Taipei,” Lin said. Since in the past the country has participated in many international book fairs under the name “Taiwan,” the Taipei Book Fair Foundation, which won an open bid to sponsor Taiwan’s participation in Seoul, decided to boycott the event, Lin said.
■MILITARY
‘Sky Dragon’ lives again
The Air Force announced yesterday that its “Sky Dragon” exercise has been resumed, 20 years after it was merged as part of the annual Han Kuang military exercise. “Those involved in the exercise have to stand by for irregular and continuous orders from their commander so we can assess how well pilots are able to react and stop the enemy from the off,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Major General Liu Chen-wu (劉震武). Liu made his remarks while briefing the legislature’s Diplomacy and National Defense Committee yesterday morning. He said that the latest Sky Dragon exercise was carried out in November. It was a three-day exercise without any pre-warning for the pilots. All the nation’s major jetfighters participated in a simulation of joint warfare between different aircraft. Liu also said that the Air Force has purchased simulators for its Mirage-2000-5s, F-16A Falcons and IDFs so pilots would be able to practice round-the-clock while enabling the Air Force to save on gas and maintenance expenses. “A simulator is the safest way to train our pilots,” Liu said. “We don’t have to worry about accidents or mishaps.”
■EVENTS
Northeast coast hosts race
More than 1,000 cyclists will compete in a 58-km race along a scenic route on the country’s northeast coast tomorrow. The race, organized by the National Cycling Club. The cyclists will set off at 8am from the Northeast and Ilan Coast National Scenic Area Administration and ride along a highway passing the Fulong beach resort, Longmen campsite, Yenliao beach, the old gold mining town of Jinguashi (金瓜石) and the mountain village of Jiufen (九份) in Taipei County before finishing the race at its starting point. Organizers said the event is part of efforts to increase public awareness of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Chen Mei-kang (陳梅岡), director of the Northeast and Ilan Coast National Scenic Area Administration, expressed hope that the event would showcase the beautiful scenery of Taiwan’s northeast coast.
■CULTURE
Opera troupe bound for US
A Taiwanese folk opera troupe based in Sinjhuang (新莊), Taipei County, has been invited to perform at the 15th annual Asian American Heritage Festival in California tomorrow. The troupe will present a traditional Chinese folklore play about the love story between a cowherd and a girl weaver to entertain the 2,000 people expected at the festival, which will take place at the Southern Alameda County Buddhist Church. Also invited to perform at the festival are the 46-member Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra and a 35-member women’s fire prevention promotion team from Changhua County.
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