CRIME
Two owners sentenced
The owners of two food companies involved in a tainted food scandal earlier this year were given jail sentences and fines for purposely providing false information to health authorities, the Taichung District Court said yesterday. According to the court ruling, Chen Chun-jan (陳俊然) purchased a total of 1,500kg of plasticizers from major supplier Yu Shen Chemical Co in March with assistance from Chan Tse-yuan (詹澤遠). Chen then used the plasticizers as a cheaper alternative for clouding agent, the ruling said. As a nationwide crackdown on retailers involved in the scandal began at the end of May, Chen used another identity to cheat the authorities by telling investigators he bought the plasticizers from a biotech company, the court said, adding that Chen asked Chan and the accountant of his company to provide false purchase orders and related information. Chen, who did not inform his customers even after he realized the toxic nature of the plasticizers, was sentenced to two years in prison and fined NT$1.2 million (US$39,900), while Chan was given a seven-month sentence and fined NT$20,000, the court said.
CINEMA
Sun Yat-sen to be animated
Corporate representatives from Taiwan and Japan signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday to make the first 3D animation film about the founding father of the Republic of China (ROC) Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙). The animated feature will be produced by Taiwan-based Studio 2 Animation Lab with technical support from Japanese broadcaster TV Tokyo Holdings Corp and special effects developer Shirogumi Inc, the Institute for Information Industry said. The production of the film, scheduled to be aired in Taiwan and China in October next year, will also involve three Chinese partners, the institute said. The participants also plan to form a “Sun Yat-sen Alliance” to shoot a series of TV dramas and movies in the future, the institute added.
SOCIETY
Japanese say thanks
Japanese private groups are giving away 5,000 T-shirts they made as a gesture to thank Taiwan for its aid and generous donations in the wake of the powerful earthquake that hit Japan in March, a visiting Japanese lawmaker said yesterday. New Renaissance Party founder Yoichi Masuzoe, who is in Taiwan on a four-day visit that ends tomorrow, said the non-governmental groups decided to make the shirts in gratitude of Taiwanese for their help in the aftermath of the earthquake. Designed by a Japanese illustrator, the T-shirts feature Chinese characters expressing thanks and a heart-shaped icon showing the close relationship between the two countries. The shirts are being distributed to the public at travel agencies in Japan and Masuzoe said “we hope Japanese visitors to Taiwan will wear them during their stays in the country.”
NATURE
Yushan lobbying intensifies
Taiwan has stepped up its lobbying efforts for online voters to pick Yushan (玉山), also known as Jade Mountain, as one of the “New 7 Wonders of Nature” in the final stage of the competition. The Yushan National Park Headquarters has been sending out e-mails, urging people to vote for Yushan on the Web site http://n7w.ysnp.gov.tw before the poll ends on Nov. 11. “This is now the crucial phase,” headquarters director Yu Deng-liang (游登良) said. Yushan, located in central Taiwan, is the highest mountain in East Asia. It is one of the 28 finalists in the four-stage contest that began three years ago.
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,