MARATHON
Kenyans claim victory
Kenyan runners have been invincible in most marathons in Taiwan, and this year’s Kaohsiung Mizuno International Marathon, which took place yesterday with about 30,000 foreign and local runners, was no exception. Charles Kigen Kimutai won the men’s marathon in 2 hours, 16 minutes and 21 seconds. Monica Watetu Ndiritu took first place in the women’s marathon in a record 2 hours 37 minutes 15 seconds. Kimutai earned a cash prize of NT$300,000, while Ndiritu was awarded NT$200,000. Local runner Hsu Yu-fang (許玉芳) was the fastest Taiwanese participant at 2 hours 48 minutes 22 seconds, placing fifth in the women’s division. The Kaohsiung marathon was organized by the city government and consisted of a marathon (42.125km), a half-marathon (about 25km) and a fun run (about 3.5km).
ASTRONOMY
Solar eclipse approaching
The most exciting celestial event this year is expected to be a total solar eclipse next month, although people in Taiwan are only to see part of it due to the nation’s geographical location, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. Local skywatchers are expected to be treated to about two hours of the spectacle, from 8:19am to 10:15am on March 9, but they would only see the moon block about 20 percent of the sun’s surface, the museum said. In addition to the eclipse, a promising Perseid meteor shower is set to light up the sky on Aug. 12, producing about 100 meteor sightings per hour, the museum said. If the weather is favorable, good conditions are expected for viewing the meteor shower, because a crescent moon is forecast, it said. A super full moon — one that appears larger than at any time until 2034 — is predicted for Nov. 14, the museum said.
EARTHQUAKE
Rescue efforts satisfactory
About 86 percent of people were satisfied with the joint rescue efforts conducted by the central and local governments in the aftermath of the Feb. 6 earthquake in southern Taiwan, the results of a survey released on Saturday by the National Development Council showed. Another 93 percent expressed satisfaction with the military’s active involvement in rescue efforts. On the government’s plan to provide relief aid and subsidies to people affected by the earthquake, 92 percent supported the policy. In addition, 87 percent of people said the government should subsidize the cost of safety inspections for old residential buildings. The government’s decision to immediately funnel NT$500 million (US$14.89 million) into reconstruction efforts and publicize a list of areas potentially vulnerable to soil liquefaction within a month also garnered the support of 79 percent and 93 percent of people, respectively.
POLICE
Tourist taken to shelter
A Finnish man has been placed in a shelter by police in Taipei’s Wenshan District (文山) after he was found sleeping at a bus station in Neihu (內湖). The 40-year-old man was taken in late on Saturday by police acting on a tip-off that a man was sleeping at a bus station in the cold on Zhishan Rd Sec 3, Neihu District. The man told police that he arrived in Taiwan on Jan. 26 and was scheduled to fly back to Finland on March. 30, but he said he had spent all his money and was wandering the streets. After being taken to the police station, the man took a shower and was given a bowl of noodles. “The instant noodles were super delicious and Taiwan’s people are really warm and nice,” he said when thanking police before being taken to a shelter in Muzha (木柵).
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,