EDUCATION
MOE rolls out study subsidy
The Ministry of Education (MOE) yesterday called on young people to apply for subsidies to study in Southeast Asian countries. The subsidy scheme was launched in support of the government’s “new southbound policy” to strengthen exchanges with countries in South and Southeast Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand, the ministry said, adding that it is aimed at encouraging young Taiwanese to study in international and non-governmental organizations in those countries. The deadline for applications for the latest phase of the program, which offers a living subsidy of up to NT$150,000 for each two-month course between July and November, is April 30, with citizens aged 18 to 30 eligible to apply, the ministry said. Additional information is available on the ministry’s Youth Department Administration Web site at www.yda.gov.tw.
COMPETITIONS
Inventors win nine medals
Taiwanese inventors have won four gold, four silver and one bronze medal at one of Asia’s biggest invention competitions, Thailand Inventors’ Day. The four gold medal-winning inventions were a drinking fountain that produces negative ion hydrogen, a photoelectric quantum wafer, a software control system and a wire saw. Among the four gold medal recipients, three were also accorded special honors for their inventions, said World Invention Intellectual Property Associations secretary-general Hsieh Man-li (謝曼麗), who led the nation’s team at the five-day event in Thailand. The team, composed of participants from local universities and private companies, had a total of nine entries to the competition this year. The event featured more than 1,300 inventions submitted by inventors from 21 nations.
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,