DIPLOMACY
EU to pass Taiwan resolution
The European Parliament is scheduled to pass a resolution on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s participation in major international organizations, a report said on Thursday. The resolution will also push for the signing of a comprehensive agreement on enhancing trade and economic cooperation between Taipei and Brussels. According to the report, the resolution will give a thumbs-up to the 15 cross-strait agreements signed in the past three years to promote bilateral rapprochement and engagement, including the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed last June. The resolution will also reaffirm the EU’s support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation as an observer in major international organizations, such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the International Civil Aviation Organization.
DIPLOMACY
Taiping report denied
A presidential spokesman denied the government is intending to hold an international anti-terrorism meeting on Taiping in the South China Sea. Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) said the idea of holding such a conference on the tiny Taiwan-controlled islet is no more than a proposal by some academics, about which the government has not yet made a decision. Fan Chiang was responding to an Asia Week magazine report that the government will station marines on the islet and hold an international meeting on anti-terrorism there this month. The report said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would participate in the meeting in a gesture to illustrate Taiwan’s sovereignty over the area. The disputed area is also claimed by China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.
CHARITY
Red Cross heads to Japan
The Red Cross Society of the Republic of China said yesterday it will attend a partnership meeting in Japan on Monday and will sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with its Japanese counterpart on the transfer of disaster relief donations. Lin Hsiu-fen (林秀芬), deputy secretary-general of the society, said that at the meeting, the Japan Red Cross will brief representatives of 20 nations on how the donated funds are being allocated. The Japanese Red Cross is scheduled to take the meeting’s participants to heavily damaged areas of Sendai and Ishinomagi in Miyagi Prefecture. They will also visit temporary shelters and Red Cross hospitals. Meanwhile, C.V. Chen (陳長文), the head of Taiwan’s society, is scheduled to leave for Japan on Thursday to sign an MOU with his Japanese counterpart on Taiwan-Japan disaster relief efforts and on the delivery of donated funds to Japan, Lin said.
TRANSPORT
TRA looks to recruit women
The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) has recently introduced six female conductors as part of a marketing campaign to rejuvenate the century-old service. Chih Chia-chen (池佳真), a 29-year-old conductor nicknamed “Little Lin Chi-ling (林志玲)” after the super model, said she hoped to bring a refreshing image to the TRA. “I feel a great sense of achievement when helping passengers, especially seniors,” Chih said. The “beautiful conductor” campaign is part of the TRA’s recent efforts to provide passengers with a unique travel experience, a TRA official said. The TRA said it has been working to recruit more females in recent years to redress a gender imbalance. Only 24 of the TRA’s
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,