TRAVEL
New rule for Canada visas
Starting on Dec. 31, Taiwanese applying for Canadian visas — but not electronic travel authorizations — must submit biometric information, including fingerprints, and a photograph to the Canada visa application center in Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday. The new rule, which covers multiple types of visa, including study or work permits, permanent residence and asylum, took effect on July 31 for applicants from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and is to apply to those from Asia, the Asia-Pacific and the Americas as of Dec. 31. Whether applicants apply online or submit paper applications, they still must register their biometric information with the application office in Xinyi District (信義), the ministry said. However, the new rule does not apply to applicants under the age of 14 or over 79.
TOURISM
QR English tours for Tainan
Major historical sites in Tainan are offering self-guided QR code tours in English, as part of the city’s efforts to cater to the needs of foreign visitors, the city’s Office of English as the Second Official Language said last week. Starting today, the QR codes are available at Fort Provintia, Fort Zeelandia, Anping Tree House, Eternal Golden Fortress and the Koxinga Shrine, office Deputy Director Sabrina Tien (田玲瑚) said. Visitors can use their smartphones to scan QR codes at various locations around the sites to learn about their history or background, the office said. The three-and-a-half-year old office strives to “provide English resources to both foreigners and citizens and establish an environment that is friendly to both English speakers and English learners,” according a statement on its Web site.
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,