■Agriculture
Vegetable center holds meet
About 50 experts from eight Southeast Asian nations gathered in Tainan yesterday for a four-day meeting to brainstorm ways to help eradicate the malnutrition faced by the poor in the region, said Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC) yesterday. Tainan-based AVRDC was the host of the regional planning meeting for the project on "Promoting Utilization of Indigenous Vegetables for Improved Nutrition of Resource-Poor Households in Asia," funded by the Asian Development Bank. "The first phase of the project was more focused on the assembly, characterization and regeneration of the materials to promote indigenous vegetables," said Liwayway Engle, head of AVRDC's genetic resources and seed unit who acts as the project coordinator.
■ Sculpture
Hualien to host art festival
Hualien County and Seravezza, an Italian city renowned for its stone sculptures, will co-host an exhibition of stone sculptures in Hualien in October this year, Johnson Shen (沈中元), director of the county's culture bureau, announced yesterday. During the month-long exhibition, entitled "2003 Hualien International Stone Sculpture Festival: A Party for Two Stone Cities," ten stone sculptors, five from Taiwan and five from Italy, will chisel their works in Hualien. Hualien produces high-quality stones that are the favorites of stone sculptors. Seravezza, also well-known for its excellent stones, is a haven for stone sculptors from around the world, Shen said. The procedures of the artists' chiseling their works will be aired live online at stone.ccl.hlc.edu.tw, a Web site run by the National Taiwan University of Arts.
■ Police
Hseih names female chief
The chief of the presidential residence police authority, Hsieh Feng-feng (謝芬芬) has been named head of the Ilan County Police Department, Ilan County Chief Liu Shou-cheng (劉守成) said yesterday. The appointment, recommended by National Police Administration Director-General Wang Ginn-wang (王進旺), will make Hsieh the first woman police officer ever appointed to be head of any county or city police department. Hsieh became an inspector of the National Police Administration when President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was elected. She had previously served as a squadron commander of the Taipei Municipal Juvenile Affairs Department when Chenwas mayor. She has also served as the chief of the presidential residence's bodyguards in addition to her NPA duties.
■ Drugs
Taiwan's efforts recognized
Taiwan's anti-drug efforts have been recognized internationally, Ministry of Justice (MOJ) officials said yesterday. Taiwan is not on a list of the main drug production and transshipment countries published Jan. 23 by the US government, the officials said, adding that it was the third consecutive year that Taiwan has not appeared on the list. A total of 23 countries were listed by the US government as the world's main drug producers and transshipment centers this year -- Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Myanmar, China, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam. The MOJ will continue to implement the government's anti-drug policies and measures, the officials added.
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