OBITUARY
Phil Moriarty, 60, passes
Phil Moriarty, 60, passed away yesterday after a year-long battle with cancer. A resident of Taiwan since 1989, he was well known within the English teaching community as “Uncle Phil” and was often sought out for his advice and friendship. Moriarty earned a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service in 1972. After graduating, he joined the US Army, serving as an M-60 tank commander in armored units in South Korea (1974-1975) and Germany (1979-1982), before retiring as a Lieutenant-Colonel and moving to Taipei. He continued as an army reservist serving in Japan during the 1990s. During most of his time in Taiwan, he worked at the Chinese Cultural University as an English professor. He was an active and enthusiastic member of the local Free Masons, with memberships in both the Harmony Lodge and the Scottish Rite, where he achieved Venerable Master 32? Knight Commander of the Court of Honour. He was also a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars — Flying Tigers Post 9957, where he served as post commander from 1990-1992. He was a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association.
TRAVEL
Program spotlights Taiwan
Radio Wien, the Vienna branch of Austria’s national public service broadcaster, aired a two-hour special about Taiwan on Sunday. The program introduced the history of the Republic of China and the landscape of Taiwan, describing it as the jewel of Asia. After visiting Taiwan for one week in August, program host Peter Agathakis chose to feature a number of popular spots in Taiwan during his show, including Taroko Gorge, the National Palace Museum and Yeliou. He said Taiwan’s numerous mountains would appeal to hikers.
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,