Police were yesterday investigating an Internet post that called for the assassination of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) two daughters.
Ma’s daughters, Lesley Ma (馬唯中) and Kelly Ma (馬元中), both reside in the US.
The threatening post first appeared on a Yahoo discussion board for stock tips on Wednesday that called on Taiwanese residing in the US to murder Ma’s daughters, adding that “[Lesley and Kelly] think they are safe hiding in the US?”
The entry was removed two hours later after complaints were made by other board users, police said.
Authorities said that security for Lesley and Kelly Ma would be increased for the duration of the investigation.
Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) yesterday said the security unit would pay special attention to ensure the safety of the president’s two daughters.
Lawmakers across party lines yesterday deplored the post, with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Shuai Hua-ming (帥化民) lashing out at the person who posted the entry.
Shuai described the person as “shameful” and “worse than the little gangsters portrayed in the [Taiwanese gangster movie] Monga [艋舺]” because the perpetrator did not identify himself or herself in the article.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said that while Taiwan is an open and democratic society, “any threats against human life will be rejected,” adding that the person was likely a political fanatic.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG AND KO SHU-LING
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,