CULTURE
Local films in Dallas festival
Five Taiwanese films will be screened at the 12th Annual Asian Film Festival of Dallas, which opens on Thursday, the Ministry of Culture said. The films include the romantic comedy Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? (明天記得愛上我), the inspirational sports film Step Back To Glory (志氣), the drama Finding Anthony (公主與王子) about socially marginalized youth, and Ye-Zai (椰仔), about bounty hunters for illegal immigrants, the ministry said. The documentary Go Grandriders (不老騎士), which portrays the story of 17 octogenarians who undertook a 1,178km trip around Taiwan by motorcycle, will also be shown. The Taiwanese movies will be among about 40 feature films, animations, documentaries and short films to be showcased at the festival, which will run until July 18. The festival, launched in 2002, has grown to become the largest showcase of Asian and Asian American cinema in the southern US.
CULTURE
PTS to show Lee’s films
The Public Television Service (PTS) will show a retrospective of films featuring theater director and actor Hugh Lee (李國修) over the next two weeks to commemorate his death on Tuesday at the age of 57. Part one of the 2011 documentary Lanlin Theatre Troupe (蘭陵劇坊), about Taiwan’s first theater group, founded in 1979, of which Lee was an influential member, will be aired on Sunday, PTS said. The second part will be shown on July 14, the station said. The documentary includes interviews with Lee and other members of the group. Lee, who founded the Ping-Fong Acting Troupe (屏風表演班) in 1986, died in Taichung after battling cancer for three years. He is considered one of the most prolific figures in contemporary Taiwanese theater.
GOVERNMENT
Control Yuan head impeached
Control Yuan members impeached Control Yuan Secretary-General Chen Feng-yi (陳豐義) in a 6-to-4 vote yesterday for destroying documents in violation of the Archives Act (檔案法). It is the first time the government watchdog has impeached one of its own secretaries-generals. Control Yuan member Ma Yi-kung (馬以工) said Chen did not abide by the Archives Act when destroying the documents, describing the act as “gross neglect of duty.” Another member, Lee Ful-dien (李復甸), said that Chen destroyed piles of Control Yuan documents. This caused the loss of many paper records of Control Yuan investigations, Lee added. Temporary records should not be destroyed before the expiration of their retention period or contrary to the procedures stipulated in the relevant regulations, according to the act.
CULTURE
Japanese star arrives
Fans thronged the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday to welcome Japanese singer-songwriter-actor Masaharu Fukuyama, who has been invited to present an award at the Golden Melody Awards tomorrow. Fukuyama waved to his fans, some of whom had come from Japan just to get a close-up glimpse of their idol at the airport. Fukuyama is the first Japanese male singer to have held concerts for 10 consecutive days at the Pacifico Yokohama Convention Center, drawing a record crowd of 180,000. He also holds the record for the highest number of top-selling EPs among Japanese male singers.
ENVIRONMENT
Cleanup campaign to be held
A monthly coastal cleanup campaign will take place during the latter half of this year to encourage the public to get involved in environmental protection efforts, the organizer said yesterday. The Taiwan Environmental Information Association said the idea is to teach people about what is happening to their surroundings so that proper environmental measures can be taken. During the cleanup at New Taipei City’s (新北市) Jinshan beach, participants will be able to observe the debris on the beach. The campaign could also help the authorities keep a closer eye on the make-up of the trash washed up on the beach and come up with solutions to littering problems. In a similar cleanup event held last month, 22 volunteers collected 160.5kg of trash, according to the association. Those who are interested in the event can go to http://ecowh.blogspot.tw/2013/06/2013-jinshan-coastal-cleanup.html.
CRIME
S Korean suspect repatriated
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) yesterday repatriated a South Korean economic crime suspect who was arrested at a Taiwanese airport in March for using a fake passport. Kwak Ho-young, 42, was detained at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on March 24 while attempting to leave Taiwan on a fake passport, according to the agency. Kwak is on the South Korean government’s wanted list and has been charged with offenses such as fraud, embezzlement and breach of trust in his home country. He has allegedly raked in illegal profits of more than US$17.35 million, the agency said. The Taoyuan District Court sentenced him to five months’ imprisonment, with penalties allowed to be commuted to fines, on charges of possessing a fake passport. After serving his term, Kwak was repatriated to South Korea yesterday.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,