■ WEATHER
Storm to miss Taiwan: CWB
A regional low air pressure system was upgraded to a tropical storm, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The bureau said the storm, named Kammuri, had formed yesterday morning. At press time, the center of the storm was located 120km southwest of the Dongsha Islands. It was moving northwest at a speed of 14kph. The bureau said yesterday that the storm would move toward Hong Kong and was unlikely to seriously affect weather in Taiwan. However, the storm’s circumfluence would likely bring rain to the eastern, central and southern parts of the nation. Afternoon showers may also occur in northern Taiwan as well as Penghu and Kinmen. Cloudy skies were forecast for Matsu.
■ DIPLOMACY
Nauruan president arrives
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday welcomed Nauruan President Marcus Stephen with a 21-gun salute and a military honor guard, the first ceremony of its kind since Ma took office in May. Ma told Stephen during a meeting later at the Presidential Office that Taiwan was glad to share its experience of development with its ally and its people. Taiwan and Nauru first established diplomatic relations in 1980. After switching its allegiance to China in July 2002, Nauru re-established diplomatic relations with Taiwan in May 2005. Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who set foot on the world’s smallest independent republic in September 2006, was Taiwan’s first president to visit the island, which became independent in 1968.
■ ENVIRONMENT
EPA launches debate
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday launched the 2008 Collegiate Environmental Protection and Recycling Debate, inviting university students to sign up for the competition. At the opening ceremony, EPA deputy minister Chang Tzi-chin (張子敬) said participating teams could choose from one of two topics: “The country should ban all usage of disposable utensils” or “The country’s garbage recycling operation should be privately run.” Chang also joined college students in reading vows to carry their own eating utensils, avoid bottled beverages, print on both sides of paper, use public transportation and turn off computers and lights when they leave a room. Teams from more than 20 schools have already signed up, Chang said. More information is available at recycle.epa.gov.tw.
■ POLITICS
Pan-green rallies announced
Three rallies will be held by pan-green parties and organizations this month to protest the government’s policies on China. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Department of Culture and Information Director Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said the DPP would hold a big rally in Taipei on Aug. 30 to mark the 100th day of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration. “The party is working out the details of the rally and DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen [蔡英文] will likely attend,” Cheng said. Pro-localization organizations such as the Taiwan Society would also join the rally, Cheng said. Meanwhile, the Taiwanese Association of University Professors said it would hold a rally protesting Ma’s China polices on Saturday at 6:30pm on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office. The Taiwan Solidarity Union is also hoping to hold a rally in front of the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Aug. 20 to protest against the ministry’s allowing increased investments in China and what it sees as the “hollowing out of Taiwan.”
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,