■POLITICS
New ministers sworn in
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday presided over a ceremony formally installing 10 new Cabinet members, including Vice Premier Sean Chen (陳冲). Other Cabinet members sworn in at the Presidential Office event were Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫), Examination Yuan Secretary-General Hwang Yea-baang (黃雅榜), Council for Economic Planning and Development Chairperson Christina Liu (劉憶如), Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Chen Yu-chang (陳裕璋), Prosecutor-General Huang Shyh-ming (黃世銘), National Security Council deputy secretaries-general Ke Kuang-yeh (葛光越) and Liu Chih-kung (劉志攻), Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) and National Security Bureau Deputy Director-General Chang Kuang-yuan (張光遠).
■POLITICS
Chen denies run in Tainan
Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) office yesterday dismissed a report that he planned to run for a legislative seat in a Tainan City by-election if the incumbent, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator William Lai (賴清德), wins the Greater Tainan mayoral race in the year-end special municipal elections. Chen has been in custody at the Tucheng Detention Center since December 2008. Last week he was given a 20-year prison sentence and a fine of NT$170 million (US$5.27 million) by the Taiwan High Court. The KMT, meanwhile, dismissed allegation that it spread the rumors about Chen.
■CULTURE
Film festival entries rise
This year’s biennial Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF) has received more than twice the number of entries compared with the last festival in 2008, organizers said yesterday. The festival is aimed at promoting dialogue between international and local documentary filmmakers, as well as introducing the “Taiwanese spirit” to the world. Festival director Angelika Wang said 1,468 films from 93 countries were submitted this year, compared with 618 films in 2008. Wang said the increase showed there was global recognition of Taiwan’s efforts to stimulate exchanges of perspectives. The festival would also help broaden the horizons of local audiences, she said. “A nation without documentaries is like a family without photo albums,” Wang said. The TIDF is the second-largest documentary festival in Asia, showing about 120 works and attracting about 60,000 people. This year’s festival will be held from Oct. 22 to Oct. 31 in Taichung.
■EDUCATION
Idiom dictionary upgraded
The Ministry of Education said yesterday that it had added an English function to its online idiom dictionary (dict.idioms.moe.edu.tw) and it would expand the content for English users in the near future. The Dictionary of Chinese Idioms, which was launched online five years ago, now allows users to search for idioms by entering key words in either Chinese or English. “Although the English search function is limited at the moment, we are planning to provide English translations for all the Chinese idioms in the dictionary,” said Chen I-mei, a member of the ministry’s National Language Committee. The ministry has been testing that function and hopes it will be ready for public use later this year, she said. The online dictionary contains about 25,000 Chinese idioms and the ministry plans to add more gradually, she said.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese