CRIME
‘Cash smuggler’ stopped
A man who allegedly hid NT$2.9 million (US$85,779) on his person and in a carry-on bag was apprehended at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday, airport police said. The man, surnamed Chung (鍾), was scheduled to board a flight for Hong Kong at 7:25am, but was stopped at an X-ray security check at an immigration counter. He was found with NT$1.6 million tied to his waist, NT$1.2 million tied to his thigh and NT$100,000 concealed in his carry-on bag. Travelers are required to sign a declaration form if they are carrying more than US$10,000 in or out of the country. Chung said he planned to use the money for currency arbitrage, given high demand ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. The case is the latest in a string of similar incidents since late last year. Airport police said they suspect a criminal ring might be behind the incidents.
CROSS-STRAIT TIES
Tour bus hit by truck
Eighteen Chinese tourists and a Taiwanese tour guide were slightly injured when their tour bus was hit from behind by a truck in Hualien County yesterday. Police in Sincheng Township (新城) said the bus was on its way to Taroko National Park when it was hit by the truck at the 190.2km mark on Provincial Highway No. 9. They said the truck driver likely failed to maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front. Hualien Armed Forces General Hospital said all 19 passengers — seven men and 12 women — were initially diagnosed with mild concussion and had mild bruises on their necks. They checked out of the hospital after treatment. Morning Star Travel, the agency hosting the tour group, said that the tourists from Beijing were fully covered by travel and medical insurance.
WEATHER
Cold front forecast
A cold front is to arrive on Saturday, the start of this year’s Lunar New Year holiday, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The weather will be cold, but dry from Saturday through Tuesday next week, with sunny skies expected during the daytime, it said. Temperatures in the morning are forecast to stay low across the nation over the same period, while the mercury is likely to dip to 7°C in the northern and central areas, as well as flatlands in the south. From Monday, the mercury is expected to rise gradually during daytime, the bureau said. It said the public should be alert to temperature differences in different areas, which could vary by more than 10°C.
ENTERTAINMENT
Madonna ready for concert
US pop diva Madonna is preparing for two concerts to be staged at the Taipei Arena today and on Saturday as part of her 10th worldwide concert tour “Rebel Heart,” sources said yesterday. The 57-year-old singer arrived on Monday evening in a private jet and checked into the Mandarin Oriental hotel, they said. After her arrival, Madonna greeted fans on Tuesday through a post on Instagram. “We are coming to get you TAI-PEI!!” Madonna posted. The queen of pop, as she is often called, is to stay in Taiwan for seven days. She spent all day at her hotel on Tuesday, while her dancers toured Taipei, including the Ningxia Night Market and Longshan Temple, sources said. Tickets for Madonna’s Taipei concerts are still available at 7-Eleven ibon kiosks and online at ticket.ibon.com.tw.
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,