■POLITICS
New ministers sworn in
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday presided over a ceremony formally installing 10 new Cabinet members, including Vice Premier Sean Chen (陳冲). Other Cabinet members sworn in at the Presidential Office event were Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫), Examination Yuan Secretary-General Hwang Yea-baang (黃雅榜), Council for Economic Planning and Development Chairperson Christina Liu (劉憶如), Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Chen Yu-chang (陳裕璋), Prosecutor-General Huang Shyh-ming (黃世銘), National Security Council deputy secretaries-general Ke Kuang-yeh (葛光越) and Liu Chih-kung (劉志攻), Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) and National Security Bureau Deputy Director-General Chang Kuang-yuan (張光遠).
■POLITICS
Chen denies run in Tainan
Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) office yesterday dismissed a report that he planned to run for a legislative seat in a Tainan City by-election if the incumbent, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator William Lai (賴清德), wins the Greater Tainan mayoral race in the year-end special municipal elections. Chen has been in custody at the Tucheng Detention Center since December 2008. Last week he was given a 20-year prison sentence and a fine of NT$170 million (US$5.27 million) by the Taiwan High Court. The KMT, meanwhile, dismissed allegation that it spread the rumors about Chen.
■CULTURE
Film festival entries rise
This year’s biennial Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF) has received more than twice the number of entries compared with the last festival in 2008, organizers said yesterday. The festival is aimed at promoting dialogue between international and local documentary filmmakers, as well as introducing the “Taiwanese spirit” to the world. Festival director Angelika Wang said 1,468 films from 93 countries were submitted this year, compared with 618 films in 2008. Wang said the increase showed there was global recognition of Taiwan’s efforts to stimulate exchanges of perspectives. The festival would also help broaden the horizons of local audiences, she said. “A nation without documentaries is like a family without photo albums,” Wang said. The TIDF is the second-largest documentary festival in Asia, showing about 120 works and attracting about 60,000 people. This year’s festival will be held from Oct. 22 to Oct. 31 in Taichung.
■EDUCATION
Idiom dictionary upgraded
The Ministry of Education said yesterday that it had added an English function to its online idiom dictionary (dict.idioms.moe.edu.tw) and it would expand the content for English users in the near future. The Dictionary of Chinese Idioms, which was launched online five years ago, now allows users to search for idioms by entering key words in either Chinese or English. “Although the English search function is limited at the moment, we are planning to provide English translations for all the Chinese idioms in the dictionary,” said Chen I-mei, a member of the ministry’s National Language Committee. The ministry has been testing that function and hopes it will be ready for public use later this year, she said. The online dictionary contains about 25,000 Chinese idioms and the ministry plans to add more gradually, she said.
The Grand Hotel Taipei on Saturday confirmed that its information system had been illegally accessed and expressed its deepest apologies for the concern it has caused its customers, adding that the issue is being investigated by the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau. The hotel said that on Tuesday last week, it had discovered an external illegal intrusion into its information system. An initial digital forensic investigation confirmed that parts of the system had been accessed, it said, adding that the possibility that some customer data were stolen and leaked could not be ruled out. The actual scope and content of the affected data
DO THEY BITE IT? Cats have better memories than people might think, but their motivation is based entirely around the chance of getting fed Cats can remember the identity of the people who fed them the day before, Taipei-based veterinarians said on Friday, debunking a popular myth that cats have a short memory. If a stray does not recognize the person who fed them the previous day, it is likely because they are not carrying food and the cat has no reason to recognize them, said Wu Chou Animal Hospital head Chen Chen-huan (陳震寰). “When cats come to a human bearing food, it is coming for the food, not the person,” he said. “The food is the key.” Since the cat’s attention is on the food, it
‘LIKE-MINDED PARTNER’: Tako van Popta said it would be inappropriate to delay signing the deal with Taiwan because of China, adding he would promote the issue Canadian senators have stressed Taiwan’s importance for international trade and expressed enthusiasm for ensuring the Taiwan-Canada trade cooperation framework agreement is implemented this year. Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) in an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) said he was increasingly uneasy about Ottawa’s delays in signing the agreement, especially as Ottawa has warmed toward Beijing. There are “no negotiations left. Not only [is it] initialed, we have three versions of the text ready: English, French and Mandarin,” Tseng said. “That tells you how close we are to the final signature.” Tseng said that he hoped Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday bestowed one of Taiwan’s highest honors on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Ambassador Andrea Clare Bowman in recognition of her contributions to bilateral ties. “By conferring the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon on Ambassador Bowman today, I want to sincerely thank her, on behalf of the Taiwanese people, for her outstanding contribution to deepening diplomatic ties between Taiwan and SVG,” Lai said at a ceremony held at the Presidential Office in Taipei. He noted that Bowman became SVG’s first ambassador to Taiwan in 2019 and
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