■POLITICS
Congress ties established
The legislature established amity associations with members of the Mongolian and Danish congresses yesterday. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who heads both of the associations, said the objective of the organizations was to urge the government to increase cultural exchanges with the two nations. Legislators are scheduled to visit Mongolia during the legislature’s upcoming recess, she said. The current legislative session, originally slated to go into recess today, will be extended until next Tuesday.
■TECHNOLOGY
Taiwanese Web less risky
Taiwan’s Web domain was ranked among the world’s least risky last year in a list topped by Japan and Australia, according to an annual report released by US-based security technology company McAfee. Also on the list were Canada, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mexico and most nations in Europe and South America. McAfee uses a technology, SiteAdvisor, to test Web sites for browser exploitation, phishing, excessive pop-ups and malicious downloads and analysis. The report was produced after analyzing more than 27 million Web sites and 104 top-level domains. It revealed that Africa’s Cameroon was the Web’s riskiest domain last year, followed by China and Samoa. The report said Cameroon’s extension .cm was easily exploited by unscrupulous users because it was similar to the popular extension .com. The report also showed a rapid deterioration in Singapore’s domain security, with the country ranked as the world’s 10th-riskiest domain last year, up from 67th the previous year, mainly because of Chinese pharmacy spam sites. Hong Kong was the riskiest domain in 2008.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese