HEALTH, SAFETY
Gas poisoning kills tourist
A Canadian tourist died in Taipei yesterday from carbon monoxide poisoning in the illegal hostel where she was staying, Taipei police said. A preliminary investigation by the police suggests that the tourist, along with five local women, might have been exposed to carbon monoxide released from a typical water boiler fueled by natural gas. The five local women, who notified the police after feeling dizzy, were brought to a hospital for treatment and later discharged. The deceased, identified only as “Lydia,” was said to have checked into the three-bedroom apartment in central Taipei after arriving in the country on Friday last week. She was due to leave Taiwan yesterday. The apartment is used illegally as a small hostel by two tenants, who have been questioned by the police.
EDUCATION
Taiwan No. 2 in Olympiad
A team of nine high-school students from Taiwan placed second in the just-ended Asian Inter-Cities Teenagers’ Mathematics Olympiad in Bogor, Indonesia, winning honors in team, group, and individual competitions. The Taiwanese math wizards won two first-prize trophies in the full-team competition, two group prizes (honoring the top three members of the team in a particular discipline), and five silver and three bronze medals in the individual events. The Philippine math team topped the Olympiad, while the team from Thailand placed third, according to event organizers. A total of 128 math wizards from 10 countries participated in the Olympiad hosted by Indonesia’s Ministry of Education between, which ended yesterday. Other countries represented in the contest were China, India, Bulgaria, Malaysia, Iran, Kazakhstan and host Indonesia.
AVIATION
Discounts to offset price rises
While domestic airfares are set to rise by between 2 and 10 percent from tomorrow, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said yesterday it has negotiated with air carriers to offer discounts that help offset the impact. More than 80 percent of existing flights are to benefit from discounts, with one-quarter of off-peak flights discounted by 30 percent provided tickets are bought 14 days in advance, the CAA said. Off-peak flights are any leaving from outlying islands or eastern parts of Taiwan between 9am and 11am, or those departing to those areas between 2pm and 5pm. The discounts are expected to stimulate demand for domestic flights serving the country’s off-shore islands and eastern areas to increase carrier supply and promote tourism.
FOOD
Hotels start traceable menus
Four well-known hospitality brands are to start applying a food traceability system to their menus in early next year, to promote food safety following a year of food safety scandals and scares. The Agriculture Multi-Discipline Management of Technology (AMOT), a business group, announced yesterday that the participating brands are five-star hotel W Taipei, 60-year-old Peng Yuan Restaurant, food conglomerate Wow-Prime Group’s Hot-7 restaurant chain and Mellow Fields Hotel. The four would change their menus quarterly using the system, which provide text and video information on how and where the foods they sell were produced. AMOT said it is seeking more restaurants and hotels to join its program, which would also feature information in English and Japanese.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods