■WEATHER
Sleet falls on Yushan
Sleet fell on Yushan (玉山), the nation’s highest peak yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau said. Sleet is not unusual for Yushan in April, with snow falling on the mountain an average of four days each April, meteorologists said. There are also snowy days on Yushan in May and even into July, they said, adding that it snowed there on July 25, 1974. As of 11am that day, 5.5cm had accumulated on flat ground around the CWB weather station on the 3,952m summit, the forecasters said.
■EDUCATION
Schools to provide G-TELP
Seven universities around the country announced yesterday that they would provide General Test of English Language Proficiency (G-TELP) testing. The universities, including the National University of Tainan and Chinese Culture University, said they would promote the US-based G-TELP system throughout this year. University officials said tests would offer opportunities for students to secure English language proficiency certificates, which would enhance students’ international competitiveness. The G-TELP system originates from a language center at the San Diego State University in California and is aimed at helping non-English speakers obtain a reliable English language evaluation and eliminate possible learning obstacles to improve their language skills, the officials said.
■CRIME
Taiwan, China arrest 1,600
Cooperation between Taiwanese police and their Chinese counterparts has led to the arrest of more than 1,600 alleged swindlers in less than a year, Taiwanese officials said yesterday. A total of 1,663 suspects were arrested between last June and last month as the two sides joined hands in cracking down on Internet and telephone fraud involving criminals on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said. In one of the latest cases, 13 suspects were caught in Taiwan and 19 in China for allegedly obtaining NT$500 million (US$16 million ) through telephone scams, the bureau said. The suspects allegedly obtained bank account details by posing on the phone as Chinese police officers and employees at Chinese telecoms firms or prosecutor’s offices. They told the victims their accounts were being used for money laundering or their phone bills were overdue, later using the details to empty bank accounts, the bureau said.
■SOCIETY
Vendor makes ‘Time’ list
A vegetable vendor from Taitung has made this year’s US Time magazine list of the 100 most influential persons in the world based on her philanthropy. Chen Shu-chu (陳樹菊) was ranked eighth in the “heroes” category of this year’s TIME 100 list. “Out of her modest living, Chen, 59, has managed to donate nearly NT$10 million [that’s US$320,000] to various causes, including US$32,000 for a children’s fund, US$144,000 to help build a library at a school she attended and another US$32,000 for the local orphanage, where she also gives financial support to three children,” the magazine states. Chen, who did not complete elementary school because of poverty, was quoted as having told local press that “money serves its purpose only when it is used for those who need it.” Last month, Chen was selected by Forbes magazine of the US as one of 48 heroes of philanthropy from Asia.
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,