TRAVEL
Cholera warning for Nepal
Travelers to Nepal should take precautions against cholera, which has caused a number of deaths in the South Asian country this year, the Centers for Disease Control said on Saturday. A total of 29 people in Nepal have died of the illness, which has symptoms that include diarrhea and dehydration, the centers said. Most people hospitalized for cholera in Kathmandu contracted the infectious disease after drinking untreated water, it said, adding that western parts of the country have also reported infections. The centers warned travelers to the country against buying food from roadside vendors and advised people to only eat cooked food, drink bottled water and wash their hands frequently.
SOCIETY
Taipei opens archive doors
The Taipei City Archives is holding an exhibition on various aspects of the city’s history, including politics, industry, urban development, culture and lifestyle, at the Boliliao Historic Block to celebrate its 60th anniversary. The exhibition, titled Taipei First, runs until Sept. 28 at the facility in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華). It features photographs, postcards and other documents that tell stories about the city’s history. According to the organizers, the exhibition provides visitors with a chance to learn about the city’s past and its transition to modern times. The city’s first city block, for example, was developed on Guiyang Street, a popular destination for businesspeople seeking to trade food and goods. The first Western-style community, on the other hand, was formed in 1885 on Quide Street in Datung District (大同) when then-Taiwan governor Liu Mingchuan (劉銘傳) built Western-style buildings for foreign traders. Many valuable documents, including a specimen of the first-imported batch of Penglai rice (蓬萊米), old city maps and land leases can also be found at the exhibition. The block that houses the exhibition opens from 10am to 5pm from Tuesdays to Fridays and to 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays. The block is closed on Mondays.
MILITARY
Navy officers face discipline
The Taiwanese navy yesterday said the Naval Personnel Rights Protection Committee would hold a meeting to discuss disciplinary measures to be taken against several officers after warships veered off course and entered a Japanese economic exclusion zone during a military drill last month, and the conclusions will be sent to the Ministry of National Defense for approval. The committee meeting will be chaired by Deputy Chief of the Navy Vice Admiral Liu Jun-Ying (劉俊英) and eight experts in maritime and administrative law. Seven naval representatives will also participate. Chief of the Navy Admiral Tung Hsiang-lung (董翔龍) said he was responsible for the mistake and should be disciplined. The navy said the committee would clarify who is to be held responsible for the incident and suggest disciplinary action. The ministry last week revoked a decision by the navy to punish several officers previously held responsible for the incident. On July 25 and July 26, Rear Admiral Chang Feng-chiang’s (張鳳強) fleet sailed out of the area designated for the military exercise toward the Japanese island of Yonaguni, about 100km east of Taiwan, raising alarm in Japan. The former fleet commander said that he sent a cable to his superiors about his plan to sail off course, but received no reply, which he took to be approval of his intentions.
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