CRIME
Bank clerk foils scam
A woman in Pingtung County almost fell into a trap set by a man claiming to be a popular South Korean celebrity, when he asked her to send money to help pay his medical bills, police said yesterday. The 45-year-old, surnamed Chang (張), was preparing on Friday last week to transfer US$1,000 to a man she thought was Korean actor and model Kim Jae-wook when she aroused the suspicion of a bank clerk, police said. The clerk alerted the police, saying Chang appeared nervous and kept scrolling through her phone while she was trying to make the transfer at the Pingtung branch of Bank of Taiwan. Chang told the police she wanted to transfer US$1,000 to Kim, who was in hospital in the US with a foot injury and needed help to pay his medical bills before he could be discharged. It took four police officers and three bank clerks to convince Chang that she was not talking to the South Korean actor, police said.
DIPLOMACY
President thanks Engel
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called US Representative Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to thank him for his long-standing support of pro-Taiwan bills and for speaking up for democratic Taiwan. Engel, who was defeated in New York’s Democratic primary in July, is to end his term on Jan. 3. Tsai during the 10-minute telephone call thanked Engel on behalf of the government and Taiwanese for his staunch support for the nation, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said. Although Engel’s term is to end, Tsai told him that she believed the deep friendship between Taiwan and the US would be unwavering, given their shared values of democracy, human rights and freedom, something Engel himself has said in the past.
EARTHQUAKES
Taitung rattled twice
Two earthquakes rattled the southeast of the nation within two hours early yesterday morning, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. No immediate injuries or damage were reported. A magnitude 4.8 earthquake shook Taitung at 2:37am with an epicenter at sea, about 133.7km south of Taitung County Hall, at a depth of 26.5km, the Seismology Center said. The quake’s highest intensity of 3 was measured in Pingtung County. It had an intensity of 2 in Taitung. At 4:14am a magnitude 4.9 earthquake also rattled Taitung. Its epicenter was also at sea, about 126.2km south of Taitung County Hall, at a depth of 28.3km, the center said. Its highest intensity of 3 was also in Pingtung County, it added.
ENVIRONMENT
No Taipei water concerns
The main reservoir that supplies Taipei and New Taipei City is almost at full capacity after several days of rain in the past week, which means there is no concern about a water shortage in the area for the next three months, the Taipei Feitsui Reservoir Administration said yesterday. The rains, which began on Wednesday last week with the arrival of a northeasterly system, have added about 23.6 million cubic meters of water to the Feitsui Reservoir, said Lin Pao-lung (林保隆), head of the administration’s operations division. The reservoir is at 90.19 percent capacity, enough water for the next three months, Lin said. However, in areas south of Taipei, particularly from Taoyuan to Taichung, residents are advised to help conserve water, as the reservoirs that supply those areas are at moderate to low capacity, he 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
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,