WEATHER
Cooler weather to return
The abundant sunshine the north has seen over the past week will give way to rain beginning later today under influence of a weather front, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The weather fluctuations are also likely to affect mountainous areas in central and southern parts, bringing sporadic showers, forecasters said. Today, temperatures are expected to range between 22oC and 31oC in the north, 23oC and 31oC in central Taiwan, and 24oC to 30oC in the south. The rainy weather could drop daytime high temperatures by about 4oC in the north from tomorrow, the bureau said.
TOURISM
Dapeng to hold water events
The Dapeng Bay National Scenic Area Administration in Pingtung County said yesterday that it will host a series of water events starting on Saturday next week, including free canoe activities. Administration officials said the events, part of the effort to promote an international sailing regatta at Dapeng Bay (大鵬灣) on May 3 and 4, are aimed at attracting tourists to visit the bay and participate in watersports as summer approaches. To entice tourists, there will be free rides on canoes and regattas on April 26 and 27, and May 3, 4, 10 and 11. So far, more than 400 people have registered for the canoe rides and regatta, officials said, adding that although registration has ended, there will be openings available for people who turn up on the day. As for the race itself, about 300 competitors in 182 teams will set sail in the waters off Pingtung County, and will sail from Dapeng Bay to Liuqiu Township (琉球), covering a distance of about 20km, the officials said.
CRIME
Former warden arrested
Police in Yunlin County arrested a former village warden in Cihtong Township (莿桐) and his four aides earlier this week in a crackdown on a human trafficking operation that they said brought Chinese women to Taiwan to work as prostitutes under the pretense of marriage. The operation allegedly paired unmarried Taiwanese men from Yunlin, Changhua, Nantou and Chiayi counties as well as Greater Taichung with the women in fake marriages. The women were then allegedly forced to work in hostess clubs and as prostitutes, police said, adding that the men agreed to take part in the scam because they owed money to the ring. Police also accused the women of being complicit in the operation, saying the women brought family members to Taiwan once they obtained local citizenship and allegedly took advantage of education and welfare programs.
EARTHQUAKES
Temblors rattle Yilan
Yilan County was rattled yesterday by two earthquakes of magnitude 3.5 and 3.7 on the Richter scale, the Central Weather Bureau said. The first earthquake occurred at 6:46pm and the second at 7:02pm, with their epicenters being very close to each other in Datong Township (大同), the bureau said. The strongest temblor was felt at an intensity of 4 in Nanshan Township (南山), according to the bureau.Lying near the junction of two tectonic plates, the nation is regularly shaken by earthquakes. An 8km deep, magnitude 7.6 earthquake centered in Nantou County killed about 2,400 people on Sept. 21, 1999, with damage estimated at NT$300 billion (US$9.9 billion).
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,