WEATHER
Cold spell to continue
The current cold weather is expected to continue over the next two days, as another cold front was forecast to arrive late yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The new cold spell will send temperatures in areas north of Chiayi County, the northeast coast and open areas plummeting to below 10oC between late yesterday and early today, the bureau said. The lowest temperatures predicted for today are 9oC northern Taiwan , with 10oC forecast for central areas and 12oC for the south, the bureau said. It could also snow at elevations of more than 3,000m, as precipitation is also forecast, it said. Wet weather was set to continue in eastern, central and northern regions. The cold spell is expected to recede by tomorrow.
TRANSPORTATION
TRA’s paperweight a hit
The Taiwan Railway Administration’s (TRA) efforts to transform itself from a corporation providing just transport services to one promoting “unique life experiences” has begun to bear fruit, with its latest railway-related merchandise garnering overwhelming support. Playing on the Chinese word for “track,” 500 TRA paperweights bearing the message “true love is always on track” sold out within an hour of going on sale in the approach to Valentine’s Day today. “The way the TRA portrays love is quite unique and romantic,” said college student Judy Hsieh. The TRA has also launched various campaigns to encourage more people to take the train. For instance, a recent “rail passport” promotion that offered a passbook for 100 stations where travelers could mark off the stations they visited proved a great success, with 5,000 copies gone within just three days of being offered.
SPORT
Man crashes glider into tree
Rescuers in Greater Kaohsiung found a US citizen hanging in a tree, with injuries that were not life-threatening, after he crashed his hang glider in a mountainous area yesterday. The local fire department dispatched 12 rescuers to search for the man in Tianliao Township (田寮) after receiving reports of the crash, local police said. The 54-year-old man, who lives in the city’s Lujhu District (路竹) and who was identified only by his Chinese name, Ma Tai-yi, on his local identification card, said he did not know how the crash occurred, police said. He suffered a broken ankle and complained of lower back pain that doctors said could indicate spinal damage.
TRANSPORTATION
MRT line nearing operation
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday gave conditional approval to the operation of the MRT line connecting Nangang Station on the Nangang Line and the Nangang Exhibition Center Station on the Wenhu Line, provided the Taipei City Government improve two main items before they launch its operations. The two main items focus on directional signs both inside and outside MRT stations as well as the facilities inside MRT stations. Meanwhile, the Inspection Committee listed five secondary items as well as five other items that the city government should work on later. Richard Chen (陳椿亮), commissioner of the Department of Rapid Transit System at the Taipei City Government, said the department would address the issues, adding that it would need at least two weeks to complete all the administrative procedures. The 1km-long MRT Line could be launched by the end of this month, he said.
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