■ POLITICS
Case against Hsieh dropped
District prosecutors yesterday said they would not prosecute former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) for accusing President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of possessing a valid US green card. During Hsieh’s bid for the presidency, the Hsieh camp said Ma had a valid green card. Ma countered that his green card became invalid about 20 years ago. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus filed a lawsuit on behalf of Ma in March last year before the election. They accused Hsieh of violating the Election and Recall Act for Public Servants (公務人員選舉罷免法), which bars the spreading of “rumors or untruths through words, pictures, speeches or other means in an attempt to prevent a certain candidate from being elected.” Prosecutors said that as Ma was running for the presidency, whether he possessed a green card was a matter of public concern. The prosecutors said some of Hsieh’s claims were later shown to be true, which showed that he was not merely fabricating aspersions to smear his opponent.
■ TRAVEL
MOFA adjusts alert system
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday added a “gray” category to its travel alert system, which offers advice for people going abroad. The system now consists of a gray alert, urging travelers to exercise caution; a yellow alert, urging extra precautions and care in assessing the safety of one’s destination; an orange alert, recommending that citizens avoid all non-essential travel to a country; and a red alert advising against all travel to a country. MOFA said the system was one guideline for travelers, but that all travelers should carefully evaluate their destinations when planning trips abroad.
■ SOCIETY
‘Famine camp’ planned
The local chapter of the Christian charity World Vision yesterday said Academia Sinica would participate for the second consecutive year in the organization’s Thirty-Hour Famine by hosting a 12-hour “famine camp” to raise awareness of poverty. “This year, top academics will again go without food for 12 hours, from 9am to 9pm on July 10, and learn about humanitarian issues,” World Vision Taiwan said in a press statement. World Vision Taiwan said that 300 people from Academia Sinica had signed up for the event — tripling last year’s figure. In its 20th year, the Thirty-Hour Famine program features a series of activities to raise funds to fight hunger. This year’s events will include a Famine Hero Rally on Aug. 15 and Aug. 16 and a famine challenge in which participants fast for 12 to 30 hours on their own.
■ EDUCATION
Biology camp in session
High school students made lanterns from puffer fish yesterday as part of a five-day marine biology camp at National Taiwan Ocean University. Students removed the skins of the fish, immersed them in the preservative formalin and stuffed them with paper to retain their shape. The lanterns were then decorated with other parts of the fish. The spiny puffer is a small fish with spines used for defense when threatened. More than 30 students are participating in the biology camp. Other activities included making fish food, learning about aquatic invertebrates, visiting the university’s aquatic animal center and learning about breeding fish.
■ SAFETY
Kinmen shipwreck drill
The Kinmen County Government said it would hold a shipwreck drill on Sept. 15 for the route between Kinmen and Xiamen. Officials will seek to determine whether a joint rescue mechanism with China is needed, a county official said yesterday. The drill will simulate a collision between a Chinese cargo ship and a passenger boat with 162 people on board en route from Kinmen’s Shueitou Pier to Xiamen’s Dongdu Wharf. During the exercise, teams will be dispatched to the scene to “rescue” passengers who fell overboard and to “treat” the wounded. Although such an accident could occur in the area, Kinmen may not have the capabilities to handle a disaster of that magnitude, Kinmen County Commissioner Lee Chu-feng (李柱烽) said.
■ EVENTS
Rain Festival to begin
The Ilan County Government is inviting the public to take part in the Ilan International Rain Festival, which opens on Saturday. This year’s festival is expected to attract more than 1 million visitors from home and abroad. Ilan County Commissioner Lu Guo-hwa (呂國華) said the event this year would be on a larger scale than last year, with more diverse activities, including three theme areas — the Wulaokeng Adventure Park, the Dongshan River Park and the Toucheng Vigorous Ocean Paradise. The festival will feature performances by Wuqiao acrobatic troupes from Hebei Province, China, a Nanta drumming show from South Korea, a bamboo orchestra from the Philippines and other attractions such as a pop music festival, a beauty pageant, a surfing competition, a street dancing competition, a creativity market and a beach wedding ceremony. Admission to the Toucheng Vigorous Ocean Paradise is free, while tickets for the Wulaokeng Adventure Park and the Dongshan River Park will vary depending on entry time and group size. The festival ends on Aug. 23.
■ EDUCATION
‘Ambassadors’ fly to Japan
Six fifth-graders from Chiayi County departed for Japan to take part in a two-week global youth camp as Taiwanese junior ambassadors, the county’s Education Department said on Tuesday. Chiayi County Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) met the children to give them encouragement during a flag handover ceremony on Tuesday, a day before the 21st Asia-Pacific Children’s Convention (APCC) began in Fukuoka, Japan. Prior to the trip, the three boys and three girls selected from Siang He Elementary School in Chiayi County attended weekly training workshops to study English and Japanese and gain an understanding of international etiquette. The APCC said that the government-funded organization invites children from the Asia-Pacific region to Fukuoka as “junior ambassadors” to improve their international understanding through exchange programs including homestays, school visits and exchange camps.
■ POLITICS
Impeachment attempt fails
The Control Yuan yesterday failed to pass an impeachment motion against former Toronto-based Government Information Office (GIO) official Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英), who used insulting terms to refer to Taiwan and Taiwanese people in a series of online articles under the pen name Fan Lan-chin (范蘭欽). Control Yuan member Chien Lin Hui-chun’s (錢林慧君) proposal to impeach Kuo was voted down 7 to 4, but she said that she would bring up the motion again after making revisions to her impeachment statement.
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