DIPLOMACY
China minister arrives
China’s Minister of Science and Technology, Wan Gang (萬鋼), is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan today to attend a cross-strait science and technology forum. Wan is to lead a delegation of more than 100 people. The two-day forum, slated to open Nov. 25, is jointly organized by Taiwan’s KT Li Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology and the Cross-Straits Science and Technology Exchange Center under China’s Ministry of Science and Technology. During his trip, Wan is to visit Taiwan’s leading research institute, Academia Sinica, as well as Delta Electronics Inc, the Hsinchu Science Park, National Tsing Hua University, National Taiwan University and the Industrial Technology Research Institute before returning to China on Thursday.
FARMING
Pig pavilion features in expo
The upcoming Yunlin Agriculture Expo is to feature a unique pavilion that is built in the shape of a pig. The “Happy Farm” pavilion — 10m high, 18m wide and 34m long — is by far the nation’s largest pig-shaped building, according to the Yunlin County government that is organizing the event. The exterior of the structure is made of bamboo weave, with entrances through the “pig’s nostrils.” The interior is decorated with various cute animals. Tsai Keng-yu a section chief at the county government’s Agriculture Department, said the pavilion was designed especially for children, with the hope of changing stereotypical impressions of farms as hot, dirty places. The exhibition is scheduled to open Dec. 25 and run through March 6.
BEVERAGE
Taiwan cafe’s new US store
Taiwan’s 85?C Bakery Cafe on Friday opened its second new store in a week in California, as the chain expects to speed up its pace of setting up new operations in the US market. The latest store — the chain’s sixth in the US — is located in Gardena in the Greater Los Angeles Area. Stephanie Peng, a manager of 85?C Bakery Cafe’s US operations, said 85?C Bakery Cafe, which expanded into the US in 2008, plans to open 15 new stores next year. In Taiwan, 85?C Bakery has over 700 outlets. Besides the US market, the chain has also expanded into China and Australia, according to its Web site.
DIPLOMACY
APEC helps 540,000 people
A digital project initiated by Taiwan at the 2003 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting has helped some 540,000 people in various countries, said Tom Chou (周台竹), director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of International Organizations. Since 2004, Taiwan has helped set up APEC Digital Opportunity Centers (ADOCs) in 10 APEC countries, namely Peru, Chile, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico, Malaysia, Russia and Papua New Guinea, Chou said. Aimed at bridging the digital divide in those countries, the ADOC project has provided training to groups such as women and children to improve their capability in the field of information and communications technology, he said, adding that Taiwan’s commitment to the project has also been beneficial to local businesses, as it offers Taiwanese IT companies an opportunity to work with ADOC members. Taiwan will hold an international conference next year to mark the 10th anniversary of the ADOC initiative and review the achievements of the project since its implementation, Chou said.
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,