■ CULTURE

Kaohsiung to hold art fest

An iron and steel sculpture festival will start later this month in Kaohsiung City, with artists exhibiting a variety of interactive projects, the city’s Bureau of Cultural Affairs announced yesterday. The 2008 Kaohsiung Steel and Iron Sculpture Festival, which will take place in the Chungtu Tangjung Brick Kiln Factory starting next Saturday, will use the factory area and nearby communities as a platform for artistic dialogue between artists, residents and visitors alike, the bureau said calling upon community residents to take part in the creative process to highlight the interactivity of the projects and to boost their creative strength. The “Domino Game,” for instance, calls upon participants to experience metal production by welding their own domino figures, which will be lined up next to one another before being toppled.

■ DEMOGRAPHICS

Population still growing

The nation’s overall population stood at 23,016,257 as of the end of last month, the Ministry of the Interior announced yesterday. The ministry said that household registry statistics showed the number of households in Taiwan reached 7,637,756 at the end of last month, up 1.87 percent from the figure for the same time last year. Taipei County topped the list with more than 1.33 million registered households, followed by Taipei City at more than 958,000, the ministry said. There were a total of 18,740 births in Taiwan last month, tallies showed.

■ DIPLOMACY

MOFA extends condolences

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday instructed the nation’s US representative Jason Yuan (袁健生) to express condolences to the family of the late Charles Cross, who served as the first American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director from 1979 to 1981. Cross had a long and distinguished career, including service in the US Marines in World War II and many years with the US Department of State, serving as ambassador to Singapore and US consul general in Hong Kong.