■WEATHER
Low-pressure system lurks
A tropical low-pressure system that has been lurking far off the southeastern coast since Sunday could increase in intensity to become a tropical storm, the Central Weather Bureau reported yesterday. It remained to be seen whether the system — if it developed into a mild storm — would directly affect Taiwan in the next few days, forecasters said. The bureau said it would begin to rain from today as the outer rim of the system nears.
■SOCIETY
Croc doc returns to work
One year and three months after having his arm bitten off by a crocodile, Chang Po-yu (張博宇) returned to his post as a veterinarian at Kaohsiung City’s Shoushan Zoo yesterday. As his arm has been reattached, Chang can now drive a car again, but his fingers are not very nimble and will need further treatment. Chang had his arm bitten off last April after mistakenly thinking a crocodile was sedated after shooting it with an antibiotic needle instead of a tranquilizer. Chang said he feels lucky and grateful to still have his arm after police shot the crocodile to get it to release his arm. Chang said he was nervous about seeing so many members of the media at his workplace, but said that he was very happy about being able to return to work.
■ENVIRONMENT
Mayor declares ‘cycling day’
The mayor of Tainan City instructed the city government yesterday to make arrangements for the launch of a weekly “cycling day,” during which the city’s civil servants will be encouraged to ride to work. Tainan City Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) said that “public functionaries should take the lead and set an example for all city residents in an effort to save energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions. On the weekly cycling day, nobody occupying a public office in Tainan City should consume a single drop of gasoline, not even through car-pooling,” Hsu said. “The air quality in Tainan City would improve significantly and more energy would be saved after the ‘cycling day’ program is launched,” he said.
■POLITICS
Court rejects Chen appeal
The Taiwan High Court yesterday turned down an appeal by former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) asking it to order the Taipei District Court to return documents concerning national secrets. Chen’s office yesterday evening issued a press statement saying the high court decision was unreasonable and unconstitutional and Chen would appeal the decision again soon after discussing it with his lawyers. The documents are related to the Taipei District Court case in which Chen’s wife Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) stands accused of corruption and forgery related to the “state affairs fund.” Chen had claimed that the documents the district court held concerning national secrets should be returned to the Presidential Office.
■EDUCATION
UA, NCKU to cooperate
Tainan City’s National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) has signed an agreement with the University of Alaska System (UA System) on establishing joint courses and other academic cooperation, a Cheng Kung spokesman said yesterday. The agreement was inked by NCKU president Lai Ming-chiao (賴明詔) and UA System president Mark Hamilton in Tainan on Friday, the spokesman said. Under the terms of the agreement, the two schools will offer joint courses and exchange teaching personnel, staff and students. The schools will issue diplomas recognized by both sides, the spokesman 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,