■ LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Kaohsiung mulls proposal
Kaohsiung City Government is mulling whether to propose that the city council reconsider its rejection of the city government’s merger plan with Kaohsiung County, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said yesterday. Chen said the city government regretted the council’s decision to reject the plan during a vote on Monday, adding that the rejection had made it impossible for the city and county to complete their planned merger at the same time as Taichung City and County next year. The central government requires that local governments wishing to become special municipalities by the end of next year to submit their merger plans to the Ministry of the Interior and the Executive Yuan for review by the end of this month.
■ FESTIVALS
Races attract record entries
The annual Taipei Dragon Boat Festival will take place from May 28 to May 30 at Dajia Riverside Park, with a record 200 local and foreign teams competing this year, the Taipei City Government said yesterday. The festival will feature a series of traditional rituals, including dragon eye dotting, a zongzi (rice dumpling) making activity, an egg-balancing contest and other ceremonies, in addition to dragon boat races during the three-day event at the park. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday that the city government would invite President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Presidential Office staff to compete with the Taipei City Government’s team in the festival. Ma had planned to lead the Presidential Office team in last year’s festival, but later withdrew from the race because of security concerns. Hau said the city government also welcomed other local governments to form dragon boat teams and join the race.
■ SPORT
Athletes from far and wide
More than 1,000 athletes from Taiwan and 15 countries around the world will participate in the annual International Hualien Cup Triathlon at Liyutan Lake (鯉魚潭) next weekend. To finish the course, athletes must swim 1.5km, bike 45km and run 10km. Chang Jenn-chyan (張振乾), director of the East Rift Valley National Scenic Area Administration, said this year’s race had attracted participants from Japan, Germany, Australia, Canada, France, South Korea and 10 other countries. The Men’s and Women’s champions from last year, Wei Cheng-chan (魏振展) and Wang Yi-wen (汪旖文), as well as Government Information Office Minister Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) and former Taipei deputy mayor King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) will also join the race this year, he said. Forty-three of the participants this year are women.
■ AGRICULTURE
COA shows off nuts
The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday unveiled two new types of peanuts — the Tainan 15 and the Nankai 183, with the former being disease-resistant, and the latter containing high amounts of anthocyanins, a natural antioxidant. “To reduce the impact of imported peanuts on local farmers, we developed the Tainan 15 to cater for local tastes, while the Nankai 183 has an increased amount of anthocyanins compared with other peanuts,” said Chen Kuo-hsien (陳國憲), a COA researcher at the Tainan District Agricultural Research and Extension Station. Peanuts are one of Taiwan’s major legume crops, Chen said, adding that annual revenue is about NT$3 billion (US$100 million). The new peanuts can be grown in the spring and the fall, and yield in about 100 to 120 days, he said.
■ DIPLOMACY
Alliance to push WHO bid
The Taiwan United Nations Alliance (台灣聯合國協進會) said yesterday that 22 of its members would promote Taiwan’s bid for WHO membership at this year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting from May 18 to May 27 in Geneva. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Twu Shiing-jer (??, a former health minister and vice chairman of the alliance, said the group would voice Taiwan’s bid for formal membership in the WHO and promote its “one Taiwan, one China” position during the event. Twu said the WHA invitation for Taiwan to participate compromised Taiwan’s sovereignty because it was the fruit of a secret deal between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party.
■ CRIME
Chen’s bookkeeper testifies
Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) bookkeeper, Chen Chen-hui (陳鎮慧), failed to account for some missing expense records when questioned in court yesterday. She was called to testify in a trial involving former presidential aides alleged to have helped Chen Shui-bian embezzle from the “state affairs fund.” Chen-hui yesterday said she used to produce monthly expense reports and give them to former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成). She said she presumed Ma handed the reports to Chen Shui-bian, but she did not know whether Chen Shui-bian read them. Asked about missing records in the accounts she kept, she said: “I don’t know what happened [to the missing reports].” When Ma’s lawyer asked Chen Chen-hui why she did not hand over the money from the fund to Chen Shui-bian, she told the court no one ever told her to give the money to the president. Rather, “[the former] first lady would tell me to bring the money to the presidential residence,” she said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
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