■ JUSTICE
Court annuls election win
The Yunlin District Court yesterday annulled the election victory of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) in the first trial of the case. The verdict is not final. The case began when Chang’s rival, Democratic Progressive Party legislative candidate Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國), filed a lawsuit in January to annul Chang’s victory on bribery allegations. Chang sent reporters text messages later yesterday saying that he respected the court’s decision, but that he would appeal. Chang went on to say that he would continue to focus most of his energy on serving the people in his electoral district, supervising the government and protecting the rights of the people.
■ EDUCATION
NTU won’t strip Lee’s status
National Taiwan University (NTU) secretary-general Liao Hsien-hao (廖咸浩) denied yesterday that the school was considering stripping renowned constitutional expert Lee Hung-hsi’s (李鴻禧) honorary professor status over Lee’s remarks during a rally in support of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). At a rally on Saturday last week, Lee said: “I want to curse the whole families of those judges and prosecutors who acted recklessly [in the investigation into corruption allegations against Chen.]” Liao told reporters that the school had received many angry phone calls as a result of Lee’s remarks and that it had held meetings to discuss the matter. “NTU felt shocked and regretted Professor Lee’s remarks, but since Lee is retired, he should take full responsibility for his comments,” Liao said. “We hope Professor Lee will not make controversial remarks as an NTU honorary professor again.”
■ SPORTS
Tai chi competition to open
An international Tai chi boxing competition is scheduled to open in Kaohsiung City today with practitioners from 13 countries taking part. A total of 127 practitioners from Hong Kong, South Africa, Japan, Uruguay, Bangladesh, Nepal, Peru, Germany, Spain, Italy, Malaysia, the US and Taiwan will compete in three categories over a period of two days, the Kuoshu Wushu Federation said.
■ EVENTS
Activists plan vigil
As part of a globally coordinated event to commemorate the first official abolition of the death penalty in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany on Nov. 30, 1786, anti-death penalty activists in Taipei will organize a candlelit vigil and a small “Cities for Life” concert tomorrow in front of the Chinan Presbyterian Church on the corner of Jinan Road (濟南路) and Zhongshan S Road (中山南路) in Taipei. From 6pm to 8pm, Aboriginal singers Panay and Nabu will also perform.
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