MUSIC
Gaga fans go gaga in lines
Undaunted by long waits, thousands of Taiwanese Lady Gaga fans formed long lines yesterday at designated spots in Taipei, Greater Taichung and Greater Kaohsiung to buy tickets for the singer’s show on Sunday. Fans were seen screaming, jumping and hugging each other when the organizers passed out the tickets in Taipei. Only holders of Lady Gaga’s latest album were entitled to line up for the chance to get the free tickets. Dacom Yang, the first person in line at the Taipei venue, said he spent more than 19 hours in line. “It feels great to be the first to get a ticket,” he told reporters. He said he loves the pop star’s music and her costumes never disappoint. To impress the singer, the college student said, he would wear a rooster on his head, dead or alive, at the show. Other fans waiting for tickets chose to dress up to attract attention.
Photo: CNA
CRIME
Crew might have mutinied
The skipper of a Taiwanese tuna boat is feared to have been thrown overboard by his Chinese crew in waters off South Africa as his whereabouts were unknown as of Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The Fusheng was reportedly headed for Capetown one week ago. Its captain and chief engineer are Taiwanese, while most of the crew are Chinese. The vessel was later reported to have been seen at anchor off a South African port. Foreign Ministry spokesman James Chang (章計平) said the ministry was trying to find out more about the vessel, its crew and the overall situation.
EDUCATION
Tuition help extended
The Ministry of Education yesterday said it had approved regulatory amendments to include more students from low-income families in the government’s tuition reduction and exemption program. During the first semester of the Republic of China’s 100th academic year, which starts in September, a total of 60,859 students will benefit from the new measure, the ministry said. The measure will require funding of NT$787 million (US$27.2 million), it said.
POLITICS
SEF head to visit China
Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) will head a delegation of government officials on a four-day visit to China today to help Taiwanese businesspeople there. Chiang and the delegation will visit Taiwanese enterprises based in Zhongshan and Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, the foundation said in a press release. The aim of the delegation is to gain a better understanding of the investment environment in China and it would invite the entrepreneurs to attend forums or other gatherings to hear what they have to say on the difficulties they typically encounter when doing business in China. The delegation will also brief Taiwanese businesspeople on the influence the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) has had on strengthening economic relations across the Taiwan Strait.
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