POLITICS
Singapore report denied
Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) yesterday denied a newspaper report that said national security officials had tried unsuccessfully to arrange for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to visit Singapore. The China Times cited an unidentified “high-ranking national security source” as saying that they had tried to arrange trips for the president to Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries, but to no avail. Fan Chiang said that the National Security Council had no plans to arrange a visit to Singapore for Ma. The source told the newspaper that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was able to visit Singapore and Thailand during his term in office because Taiwan was the top investor in the region back then. However, as China is now the major investor in Southeast Asian countries, it has become increasingly difficult for any Taiwanese president to visit the region, the report said.
POLITICS
US office expresses gratitude
The country is grateful for all the support voiced by US lawmakers and academics at a hearing sponsored by the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, Taiwan’s representative office in the US said in a statement on Friday. All of the congressional members and experts on cross-strait affairs present at the “Why Taiwan Matters” hearing unanimously stressed the importance of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) — the US law regulating relations with Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic ties — and rebutted overtures circulating in Washington policy circles recently that the US should stop arms sales to Taiwan, the statement said. The participants also called for the continued strengthening of US relations with Taiwan based on its own strategic interests and democratic ideals, as well as its security commitments to Taiwan, according to the statement.
EARTHQUAKE
Temblor shakes northeast
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake hit northeastern Taiwan at 6:18pm yesterday. No casualties or major damage were immediately reported. The Central Weather Bureau said the quake, which struck 6.7km southeast of Yilan County at a depth of 80km, had an intensity of 4 on Turtle Island. The intensity was 2 in Yilan, Hualien, Taoyuan and Miaoli counties, as well as New Taipei City (新北市) and Taipei City, according to the bureau.
HEALTH
Ma gets clean bill of health
After President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) annual physical on Friday, Mackay Memorial Hospital said the president has put on 1.3kg since last year and now weighs 73.6kg. At 178cm tall, he has a body mass index of 23.2, which puts him on the high end of a normal BMI reading. A BMI of 25 or over is considered “overweight.” Other than putting on some weight, the hospital gave Ma an overall clean bill of health. The check-up results showed that Ma’s blood pressure was a healthy 115/71mmHG. All blood and biochemical tests, as well as brain, heart, lung and gastrointestinal examinations put him in the normal range, Mackay Memorial Hospital President Tsai Cheng-ho (蔡正河) said. Ma goes to a different hospital every year for his routine check-ups. He went to National Taiwan University Hospital in 2008, the Taipei Veterans General Hospital in 2009 and the Tri-Service General Hospital last year.
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