■ POLITICS
Su takes up GIO post
New Government Information Office Minister Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) was inaugurated yesterday, saying that he wasn’t brave enough to refuse when asked to take the position in view of the critical economic situation facing the nation. Su succeeds Vanessa Shih (史亞平), who will leave for Singapore to serve as the nation’s representative there. Minister Without Portfolio Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) presided as Shih gave her office seal to Su at a handover ceremony at the Executive Yuan yesterday morning. “I am not here to make government statements, nor am I here to have debates. I am here to do something [for the country],” Su said. Su praised Shih for establishing a sound foundation during her seven-month tenure and leaving him an excellent team to work with. Born in 1976, Su will be the youngest member of the Cabinet. Tzeng commended Su for his eloquence while serving as spokesman for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) presidential campaign, saying that he would be good at conveying government policies to the public.
■ TRANSPORTATION
Taxi drivers announce fees
Because of the economic slow down this year, taxi drivers in Taipei City and county and Keelung have decided not to add a Lunar New Year holiday surcharge. Taipei Taxi Association president Liang Ping-liang (梁平良) said many taxi drivers earn less than NT$1,000 a day, and he hoped the decision would increase the public’s willingness to travel by taxi during the holiday. Taxi drivers in Taichung will add NT$85 to the meter from Lunar New Year’s Eve, which falls on Jan. 25, to the fifth day of the lunar new year, which falls on Jan. 30. A Taichung County traffic official said no decision had been made, but that they might follow the lead of Taichung City. Hualien taxi drivers will apply the night tax — an additional 20 percent to the meter — throughout the day. A Kaohsiung Taxi and Bus Association official said the city’s taxi drivers probably would follow Taipei’s example, but that the issue had not been discussed.
■ SCIENCE
Chicken shots a success
The National Science Council (NSC) yesterday claimed preliminary success in developing a three-in-one vaccine for chickens, which will help the birds ward off Newcastle Disease, Infectious Bursal Disease and fowl pox. Project leader and veterinary medicine professor at the National Chung-hsing University Lee Long-huw (李龍湖) said if his team succeeded, the vaccine would be the first three-in-one for chickens in the world.
■ TRAVEL
US visa-free path opens
Taiwan has recently forged a cooperative agreement with the US on improving travel security, paving the way for possible visa-free US entry for Taiwanese citizens, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said on Tuesday. An exchange of notes concerning the initiative was completed on Dec. 19 in Washington by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US and the American Institute in Taiwan, MOFA said in a statement. According to the Principles for Cooperation on Improving Travel Security established between the two countries, they will work together to crack down on forged documents, share traveler information, promote the issuance of e-passports and exchange information on terrorists, MOFA said. The two sides will work together on these and other measures as Taiwan must meet the requirements before further negotiating with Washington for visa-free entry, the ministry added.
■ HEALTH
Bureau earmarks funds
The Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) has appropriated NT$100 million (US$3 million) to open clinics at elementary schools in remote villages that lack medical facilities. A BNHI medical affairs management official said yesterday that there are 53 mobile medical teams circulating among remote villages offering medical treatment. Every year they offer services to 530,000 people, the official said, adding that the BNHI has appropriated NT$400 million a year for the program. Nevertheless, there are still more than 40 villages not on the circuit that lack medical resources, prompting the BNHI to decide to open the additional clinics, as well as provide vehicles to bring patients to the clinics, the official said.
■ SOCIETY
Calligraphy event to kick off
More than 10,000 people are expected to take part in a calligraphy event today in Taipei to set a record for submission to the Guinness Book of World Records, the city’s Cultural Affairs Department said yesterday. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will be one of 16 officials to open the event, which will take place at the Huashan Cultural-Creative Park at 1pm today. Ma and the 15 other officials will write 16 propitious words with writing brushes and ink, department officials said. The ceremony will be followed by a mass calligraphy event in which more than 10,000 people are expected to take part, the officials added. The department is hoping to have the event included in the Guinness Book of World Records, as there is no record for large numbers of people performing calligraphy simultaneously at a single location.
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