POLITICS
Clean election force formed
A joint law-enforcement task force was created yesterday aimed at preventing vote-buying and other illegal activities in Taipei during the campaigns for the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative elections. The “Task Force to Investigate Election Bribery and Violence” was organized by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, the Taipei office of the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau and the Taipei City Police Department. The task force is to be deployed to investigate alleged vote-buying activities, and protect voters and candidates from threats of violence, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The initiative is aimed at cracking down on vote-buying in the most efficient way to ensure a clean general election next year, the statement said.
CULTURE
Violinist Tseng to perform
Taiwanese violinist Tseng Yu-chien (曾宇謙) has agreed to perform alongside the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra when it gives two concerts in Taipei in November, Management of New Arts (MNA) said yesterday. Led by Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, the orchestra is to perform at the National Concert Hall on Nov. 19 and Nov. 20, MNA said. The 20-year-old Tseng won the silver medal in the violin category of the 15th International Tchaikovsky Competition last month; a gold medal was not awarded this year in the category. Ticketing information for the two concerts is to be announced on Thursday, MNA said.
TOURISM
Wi-Fi access more available
International visitors can now enjoy wireless Internet access by applying for an account through the iTaiwan online registration system, the National Development Council said. The council said it has worked with the Tourism Bureau and the Ministry of the Interior to streamline the registration process for foreign visitors. It said the number of iTaiwan hotspots is continuing to expand and is expected to reach 23,000 when the New Taipei City Government joins the service next month.
SOCIETY
Disaster drills scheduled
The government plans to hold disaster prevention exercises from Sept. 21 to Sept. 23 to improve public readiness to respond to natural disasters, the Cabinet’s Disaster Prevention Planning Office said yesterday. The exercises are to include a series of disaster prevention events, including an online earthquake evacuation drill, earthquake evacuation drills on campuses nationwide, a tsunami warning drill and the distribution of post-disaster rescue and relief materials in cooperation with convenience stores. The online earthquake evacuation drill was recently developed by the Ministry of the Interior and made available through a Web site launched on Aug. 1 (www.comedrill.com.tw/).
CULTURE
Pingtung seeks record
Pingtung County Government said it is planning to make a bid for a Guinness World Record in Hengchun Township (恆春) in October. The Pingtung Cultural Affairs Department said it hopes to have 1,000 people play the yueqin (月琴), a two-string Taiwanese musical instrument, and sing ballads at the event, which is part of this year’s Hengchun Folk Music Festival. About 400 people have confirmed their participation in the record-setting bid so far, it said. Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) said the festival, which opens on Oct. 9, is aimed at promoting Hengchun folk music.
MIGRANT WORKERS
Talks to start on pay hikes
After an 18-year wage freeze, the government is to hold discussions on pay increases for domestic helpers with its main supplier countries later this month, the Ministry of Labor Affairs said on Sunday. Talks are slated to begin with Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam through bilateral channels established with each country, the ministry said. The monthly wage of foreign domestic workers could be raised to between NT$16,840 and NT$17,500 from NT$15,840, the ministry said. If a wage increase is introduced, the new monthly wage will apply to newly arriving workers this year, while wages for those already working in the country will be coordinated with employers, the ministry said. As of the end of January, there were 556,412 migrant workers in the nation, with 208,486 employed as caregivers or home help, ministry data showed.
HEALTH
CDC warns on diarrhea
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) urged the public to pay attention to personal hygiene, as more diarrhea cases could be reported this summer. During the past one month, the number of people seeking treatment for gastrointestinal disorders was 590,986, compared with 563,574 cases reported during the same period last year, the CDC said in a statement. It warned especially against infectious diarrhea, most likely caused by noroviruses, salmonella and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. The best way to prevent diarrhea is to wash hands with soap frequently and avoid raw food, the CDC said. According to its most recent survey of 1,100 people aged 18 or older in the nation, 50 percent of them do not wash their hands with soap before dining, while nearly 40 percent do not do so after using the toilet.
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,