WEATHER
Festival to have clear skies
Chances for clear skies are high in western Taiwan during the Mid-Autumn Festival today, while residents in northern and eastern parts of the country might have to less ideal moon-watching conditions the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. As Typhoon Jelawat gradually moves away from Taiwan, a more stable weather pattern is expected across the nation, with occasional showers likely only in Yilan County, Hualien County and mountainous regions in the greater Taipei area, the bureau said. However, strong winds might continue to be felt in coastal areas, the bureau said, predicting gusts of up to 110kph in western Taiwan. Much lower temperatures are also expected during the festival, with daily lows dropping by about 3°C nationwide due to the effect of a new wave of seasonal winds passing over Taiwan during the weekends, the bureau said.
SOCIETY
Students win cooking event
Students of the Taipei Kai-ping Culinary School have won first place in an international cooking competition in the Australian city of Canberra on Friday, the second consecutive year in which students from the school took first place in the annual competition. Lin Hung-yu (林鴻宇) and Tu Jui-ting (杜睿庭) used Australian lamb and vegetables to create their winning recipe, outshining eight teams from five countries at the International Secondary Schools Culinary Challenge that took place from Monday through yesterday. The winners said they found it difficult to cope with the environment because it was different from where they have cooked in Taiwan. Taiwan’s representative to Australia Katharine Chang (張小月) attended the award ceremony and congratulated the students on their win.
HEALTH
Taipei residents live longest
Taipei residents are the longest-living in the country last year with an average life expectancy of 82.7 years, but the average for the nation’s 23.2 million citizens fell slightly by 0.03 years from a year earlier to 79.15, the Ministry of the Interior said. The life expectancy of Taiwanese men was 75.96, down 0.17 years from last year, while that of Taiwanese women was 82.63, up 0.08 years, said the ministry in a statement. The cause for the decline in average life expectancy for men was a higher number of deaths — 4,833, a 5.42 percent increase from the previous year, it added. Among the five municipalities, the second-highest life expectancy was New Taipei City (新北市) (80.46), Greater Taichung (78.98), Greater Tainan (78.44) and Greater Kaohsiung (77.97), the statistics showed. Hsinchu residents topped the other 18 cities and counties with a life expectancy of 80.45, while Taitung County (74.36) and Hualien County (75.7) recorded the two shortest life expectancies for the second consecutive year, the ministry said.
SPORT
‘Taichi’ event coming
A world championship for the traditional martial art of taichi (太極拳) is scheduled to be held in Taiwan from Oct. 6 to Oct. 7 to help promote and enhance the sport, an event organizer said yesterday. Now in its fourth year, the event, to be held in Taoyuan County, is expected to draw 500 practitioners from 19 countries around the world. The match will be divided into two categories: individual forms and weapons demonstration, and pushing hands. The federation hopes competitions will promote taichi and make it a world-class sport.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner