■ Religion
Buddha head returns
A Buddhist group yesterday sent back to China a 1,300-year-old sculpture of Buddha's head that looters cut off from a statue in a pagoda in eastern China about five years ago. During a brief ceremony at a temple in northern Taipei, Buddhist Master Sheng Yen (聖嚴) said returning the Buddha head to China could help enhance friendship between the rivals. Sheng said that earlier this year a group of lay disciples donated the head -- stolen in 1997 from the Four Gate Pagoda in the city of Jinan -- to his Dharma Drum Mountain, a Buddhist group involved in research and education. Sheng has only said that his disciples purchased the head abroad and has not identified who sold it to them.
■ Health
Students get food poisoning
About 40 elementary students were sent to a hospital yesterday complaining of nausea, dizziness and stomach pains after eating a school lunch. The suspected mass food poisoning was the second case in the Taipei area in less than a week. Last Thursday, about 200 students went to hospitals after drinking milk. In yesterday's incident, 41 children at Shih Chien Elementary school complained that they felt sick after eating lunch, hospital and school officials said. The meal included chicken, green vegetables, mushrooms and corn chowder, they said. TV reports showed health inspectors pouring bowls of corn chowder into plastic bags, which were sent to laboratories for testing. A physician at Wan Fang Hospital told reporters that he didn't think the sickness was caused by a virus in the food because the children did not have the common symptoms of diarrhea or fever.
■ Politics
President stresses quality
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday stressed the importance of maintaining quality in public construction projects. Only by ceaselessly raising the level of quality control, which will in turn assure a high quality of public construction, can Taiwan maintain a level of competitiveness equal to that of industrially advanced countries, Chen said. Addressing an award presentation ceremony for individuals, companies and public offices that have made outstanding contributions in the field of public construction, Chen said quality is the best guarantee for a government or a nation to survive in today's highly competitive world. He said quality public construction as a whole is a precondition for laying a solid foundation for a country's sustainable development. Chen said, the government will see to it that "Taiwan comes first" as far as investment efforts are concerned.
■ Politics
Mayors get certificates
Central Election Commission Chairman Huang Shih-cheng (黃石城) presented certificates of election to the mayors of Taipei and Kaohsiung yesterday. Huang first presented a certificate to Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and lauded the Dec. 7 mayoral campaign in the capital as "high class," saying that both Ma and his rival Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) engaged in a "gentlemanly competition." Ma, stressed that as mayor, it is important to set an example, saying that if a mayor indulges in name-calling, it sets a bad example for school students. Later, Huang awarded Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) his certificate and praised him for putting so much effort into city construction.
Agencies
RSS