■ Culture
Film makers win awards
Taiwan won two awards at the 49th Asia-Pacific Film Festival held Sept. 21 to Sept. 25 in Fukuoka, Japan. The film Taipei 21, directed by Yang Shun-ching (楊順清), was chosen from among 39 movies from 13 countries as the winner of the Best Film Award at the festival. Meanwhile, Lin Mei-shiu (林美秀) captured the Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance in another Taiwanese-made film Comes the Black Dog. The Taiwanese delegation to the festival returned to Taipei Saturday.
■ Politics
Pan-blues to release names
The caucuses of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party at the Legislative Yuan are set to announce today a list of names they recommend for a March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute (三一九槍擊事件真相調查特別委員會條例)to investigate the March 19 shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), a KMT official said yesterday. Tseng Yung-Chuan (曾永權), director of the KMT's Central Policy Coordination Committee, said in response to media questions that the caucuses will announce the list to the public at a press conference and then send it to the Legislative Yuan secretariat. Chen has signed the bill, which was passed by the Legislative Yuan Sept. 24. The Democratic Progressive Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union have refused to recommend members for the commission because they argue it is unconstitutional.
■ Politics
Sources say poll date set
The 2004 legislative elections will be held Dec. 11, sources from the Central Election Commission reported yesterday. The commission will post an official bulletin today after commission Chairman Chang Cheng-hsiung (張政雄) formally announces the election date. A total of 225 seats will be up for grabs, including 168 regional legislative seats, eight Aboriginal seats, eight overseas Chinese seats and 41 at-large seats. The 168 regional legislators will be elected from the special municipalities, counties and cities around the country, including Kinmen and Matsu, while the 41 at-large legislators will be chosen by proportional representation of political parties based on ballots each party garners in the elections. Registration for candidacy in the elections will last from Oct. 8 through Oct. 12 and the official campaign period will start Dec. 1 and end Dec. 10, commission officials said.
■ Charity
Clothes sent to Gambia
The Buddha's Light International Association (BLIA) has donated US$300,000-worth of clothes to The Gambia, a spokesman for the association's Taiwan chapter said yesterday. The gift was handed over to Gambian Foreign Affairs Minister Baboucarr Blaise Jagne by Wang Chiao-jung (王喬榮), president of the BLIA's New York chapter, in a ceremony held in New York Friday, the spokesman said. The donation is designed to express the Taiwanese people's love and concern for the Gambian people, the spokesman said. Most Gambian people are Muslims. Jagne was quoted as saying at the ceremony that the donation indicates that religious faith can transcend national boundaries to convey peace, love and benevolence. The BLIA was founded by global followers of venerable Buddhist Master Hsin Yun (星雲), founder of the Fo Kuang Shan monastery in Kaohsiung County.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
RSS