SPORTS
Taichung plans Youth Games
Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and Minister Without Portfolio Chang Ching-sen (張景森) yesterday announced a plan to organize the first Asia-Pacific Youth Games in Taichung next year, in lieu of the East Asian Youth Games, which were canceled under Chinese pressure. The city government devised the plan after deliberation with the Cabinet and experts, Lin said. Sports know no boundaries and should be free of political interference, Lin said, adding that Taiwan should create its own brands and not be afraid of political repression. More countries and cities are expected to participate in the event than in the East Asian Youth Games, as the new event is to involve the whole Asia-Pacific region, he said. Details of the event are to be announced separately and are to be set by the Cabinet and the city, he said. Political interference from a hegemonic China forced the East Asian Olympic Committee to cancel the East Asian Games, but Taichung will overcome the setback, Chang said.
DIPLOMACY
Wu attends Pacific forum
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and a Taiwanese delegation on Sunday arrived in Nauru to attend the Pacific Islands Forum and meet with the leaders of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in the region, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The one-week forum aims to enhance cooperation among independent nations in the Pacific, the ministry said in a statement. Wu is to meet with Nauruan President Baron Divavesi Waqa, who is also minister of foreign affairs and trade, it said. Wu is also to extend the nation’s congratulations to the Republic of Nauru on the 50th anniversary of its independence. Wu is to host a Taiwan-organized annual post-forum dialogue to explore bilateral and multilateral cooperation with diplomatic allies and friendly nations in the region, the ministry said.
CRIME
MOFA warns on smuggling
The number of drug-smuggling cases in South Korea involving Taiwanese suspects has risen sharply over the past two years, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said. So far this year, 26 Taiwanese suspects have been associated with drug smuggling in South Korea, up from one in 2016 and four last year, Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Deputy Head Chang Chun-yu (張均宇) said last week. In some of the 26 cases, suspects have been placed under investigation, indicted or imprisoned, Chang said, urging Taiwanese travelers to abide by the laws of the country they are visiting to avoid hurting their careers and tarnishing Taiwan’s international image. He also advised travelers against carrying items from unknown or unfamiliar sources.
LEISURE
GastroMonth in November
Michelin Guides said it would launch the first-ever GastroMonth in Taipei in November, featuring specially created cuisine, to celebrate the food culture in Taiwan. Beside Michelin-starred restaurants, “plate” restaurants, such as Prime One Steakhouse, contemporary European restaurant JE Kitchen, and Japanese restaurants Kouma and Maru are to take part, the publisher said last week. In Michelin guides, a “plate” restaurant means “good cooking, fresh ingredients, capably prepared: simply a good meal.” Under the theme Reinterpreting Classics, the selected restaurants will pay homage to classic dishes by putting their own twist to them, the publisher said.
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
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,
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