■POLITICS
Justice minister designated
The Executive Yuan yesterday designated Acting Prosecutor-General Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) as minister of justice to take over the vacancy left by Wang Ching-feng’s (王清峰) resignation last week after failing to win government support for her opposition to the death penalty. Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) told Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) on the legislative floor yesterday that Tseng would sign execution orders during his term according to the law. “The public, however, should not expect that all 44 inmates on death row will be executed at once,” said Wu, adding that Tseng would start with cases in which the verdicts are not in dispute and the criminals had committed serious crimes.
■POLITICS
Yaung to attend WHA
Department of Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) said yesterday he would represent Taiwan at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May in Geneva. In an interview on UFO radio, however, Yaung would not disclose whether he had received an invitation from the WHO, saying: “It’s not convenient to say too much.” The minister also said he hoped to have more frequent exchanges and cooperation with the WHO. Taiwan was invited to attend the WHA as an observer for the first time last year. While the government touted it as a major breakthrough in the country’s efforts to expand participation in international organizations, the Democratic Progressive Party suspected the invitation was made with a tacit agreement that Taiwan would require China’s “approval” each year to attend the annual event.
■RESOURCES
Water supplies stable: WRA
A Water Resources Agency (WRA) official said that except for southern Kaohsiung County, the nation’s water supplies were sufficient to meet demand until June 30. WRA Director-General Yang Wei-fu (楊偉甫) said in a report that a stable water supply would be assured until Aug. 31 if rainfall in the next three months reaches 40 percent of the past average for the period. Although water levels in major reservoirs in northern and central Taiwan are normal, southern Taiwan is lacking, with the two largest reservoirs — Wushantou and Nanhua — holding only 26 percent and 41 percent of their capacity respectively, Yang said. A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck southern Taiwan on March 4, damaging water retention barriers in four rivers upstream of major reservoirs and causing water storage levels to continue to decline.
■EDUCATION
Tsing Hua, Tsinghua team up
Taiwan’s National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) and China’s Tsinghua University are planning to establish joint laboratories on both campuses to enhance cooperation, NTHU vice president Yip Ming-chuen (葉銘泉) said. The labs will be funded by both sides, with NTHU contributing NT$20 million (US$628,000) per year and Tsinghua 4 million yuan (US$586,000) annually, he said, adding that the purpose of the joint labs was to achieve better sharing of resources and provide a platform for strengthening cooperation. “We hope we can implement the plan as soon as possible because both sides have reached consensus on it,” Yip said. Under the arrangement, professors from each side will be allowed to use the lab on the other side and collaborate more closely, he said. The lab plan was discussed during a visit to NTHU by Tsinghua president Gu Binglin (顧秉林) on Tuesday.
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
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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