■Culture
Children's festival opens
The Ilan County Government-sponsored 2003 International Children's Film Festival, the first children's film festival to be held in Taiwan, opened yesterday. The county government invited Chiu Li-wei (邱立偉), director of the animated film Dr. Torrado, to explain the significance and influence of children's films on children at a press conference yesterday. Ilan County Commissioner Liu Shou-cheng (劉守成) and teachers who have been trained in animated film production will help children make their own animation and act out scenes from Badu's Homework. Badu's Homework, directed by Cheng Wen-tang (鄭文堂), was chosen as the best picture at the 2003 Taipei Film Festival. It is a fairy-tale story told through the eyes of Aboriginal children. The theme is of an Aboriginal culture gradually eroded by modern life. The festival, which features movies and animation from eight countries -- Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Iran, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the US and France -- is set to run through Aug. 30.
■ Diplomacy
Chen praises El Salvador
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) met his El Salvadoran counterpart Francisco Flores yesterday at the Presidential Office, reaffirming Taiwan's relations and cooperation with El Salvador. Chen told his Salvadoran guest that Taiwan and El Salvador share the same spirit of potential and unlimited opportunity under adverse circumstances with limited resources. Chen also praised the courage and tenacity demonstrated by the El Salvadoran people in braving adversity, particularly in reconstructing the nation in the aftermath of two devastating earthquakes that hit El Salvador over recent years. El Salvador was not knocked down by the earthquakes but stood firm and was back to normal in the shortest period possible after the disasters, Chen said, adding that it represents the spirit of not abandoning the opportunity of success, which is similar to "the spirit of the sons of Taiwan."
■ Arts
Chen fetes Cloud Gate
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) attended the performance of the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre yesterday to congratulate the world-famous group's 30th anniversary. In his weekly televised broadcast, the president called the dance troupe the pride of Taiwan, and the troupe named most often by his many friends as one of the joyful things which cheer them up when they were feeling down. He thanked the troupe's many sponsors for keeping the group performing through numerous financial crises over the last three decades and promised to be a firm supporter for similar artists' performance groups in the country.
■ Politics
Lawmakers have bold plan
Lawmakers from the DPP's mainstream faction yesterday proposed holding a non-confidence vote against the Cabinet by the end of the year in a bid to allow President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to dissolve the legislature and make the next legislative election coincide with the presidential election next March. The Chinese-language United Evening News yesterday reported that DPP Legislator Trong Chai (蔡同榮) proposed the plan to force the election of legislators by next March in order to widen the conflict between the KMT-PFP alliance. That, DPP lawmakers believe, would increase Chen's chances of winning the presidential election.
Agencies
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater