■ POLITICS
Legislature to review budget
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) vowed yesterday that the legislature would carry out its gate-keeping duty when reviewing the government’s special budget request of NT$150.6 billion (US$4.4 billion). Wang told reporters that he believed lawmakers would strictly review the Cabinet’s budget proposal instead of cutting it a great deal of slack, adding the legislature would also communicate with the Cabinet about any unreasonable budget requests. Wang made the remarks after lawmakers across party lines raised questions about details of the budget request. The budget request to increase investment in public construction projects was submitted to the legislature on Monday. The Procedure Committee on Tuesday agreed to prioritize the proposal in tomorrow’s plenary session — the first plenary meeting of the spring legislative session. Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) is expected to brief the legislature tomorrow on administrative achievements in the second half of last year and take questions concerning the special budget request on Tuesday.
■ DIPLOMACY
Taiwan vows to help Tuvalu
The government promised yesterday to help residents of Tuvalu before the island chain is wiped off the map under a rising South Pacific. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) told visiting Tuvalu Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia that his government wanted to work more closely with the archipelago where the highest point is just 5m above sea level. Tuvalu, covering 26km2 over nine coral reefs, faces inundation as global warming pushes up sea levels. Leaders in the archipelago have sought an eventual haven for their 12,000 citizens as the sea level rises. “We’re an ally, so we will exhaust all options to save it,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said. “I think we’ll be working as hard as possible to help Tuvalu’s citizens.”
■ TOURISM
Cherry blossoms in bloom
The Taipei City Government said visitors to this year’s Yangmingshan National Park flower festival, which opens tomorrow and lasts until March 22, will be treated to spectacular cherry blossoms. Officials from the city’s Parks and Street Lights Office said that cherry trees on Yangmingshan are in full bloom and the red of their blossoms is the richest in years thanks to the big gap in temperatures from day to night. Details on the festival and traffic information are available in Chinese at the Web site http://2009yms.com.tw/page0.html.
■ RESEARCH
History resources go online
Researchers interested in history and philology can now register with the Academia Sinica’s online database to enjoy free access to the 16 digital archives compiled by Academia Sinica’s Institute of History and Philology (IHP). To provide high quality and accessible research materials to sinologists, the IHP began digitizing its collection of antique books, documents and artifacts in the mid-1980s, Academia Sinica said. The collection has been visited about 5,000 times a day by affiliated researchers alone. The collections — including Scripta Sinica, the Database of Bronze Rubbings, the Database of Oracle Rubbings, Grand Secretariat Archives and Ming and Qing Dynasty Biographical information — will now be open to everyone, Academia Sinica said. To apply for online access, log onto http://applyonline.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/. An explanatory meeting will be held at the IHP tomorrow from 9am to 3:30pm.
■AGRICULTURE
Tainan goes organic
Tainan County began work on a special zone for organic farming yesterday, hoping to develop it into a model for similar zones around the country and a tourist attraction. Completion of the special organic zone is scheduled for August and more than 20 farmers have already begun cultivating rice, raspberries, pomelos, pumpkins, eggplants and sweet potatoes in the compound, county officials said. The special organic farm is located on a 40-hectare plot of land that the county government leased from the state-run Taiwan Sugar Co, county officials said. Under the county’s program, the land is being rented to farmers at NT$50,000 per hectare per year, the officials said. A 1,000m² sales and exhibition center will also be opened to sell produce from the zone.
■SPORTS
Taiwanese scoop 30 medals
Taiwan won a total of 30 medals — six golds, 12 silvers and 12 bronzes — in the week-long 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games that concluded recently in the US. The 36 young athletes with intellectual disabilities that represented Taiwan won medals in all four events in which they participated — speed skating, figure skating, snowshoeing and floor hockey, the Sports Affairs Council (SAC) said. US Vice President Joe Biden attended the Idaho games and presented awards to the Taiwanese medalist in the figure skating event the council said. A photograph of the presentation made the front page of the biggest local newspaper, the Boise Statesman, that day, the SAC said. Taiwan won 20 gold medals, 13 silvers and 10 bronzes in the 2005 Special Olympics in the Japanese city of Nagano, the SAC said.
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
The Ministry of Culture yesterday officially launched the “We TAIWAN” cultural program on Osaka’s Nakanoshima sandbank, with the program’s mascot receiving overwhelming popularity. The cultural program, which runs from Aug. 2 to 20, was designed to partner with and capitalize on the 2025 World Expo that is being held in Osaka, Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13, the ministry said. On the first day of the cultural program, its mascot, a green creature named “a-We,” proved to be extremely popular, as its merch was immediately in high demand. Long lines formed yesterday for the opening
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
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