■Invoices
Lottery chances reduced
The Department of Taxation announced yesterday that winning numbers for the first prize in the bimonthly Uniform-Invoice Lottery (統一發票) will be reduced from four sets to three sets starting this month. The chance of winning the lottery will drop from 0.4 percent to 0.3 percent. Those who match all eight digits of any of the three sets of numbers will receive NT$200,000. The department says the reduction is necessary because of its financial difficulties in this fiscal year. It says it will review the policy next June or July and may increase the numbers if the government's finances have improved by then. The winning numbers for the months of September and October will be announced on Monday.
■ Government
Ma says no local taxes
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday ruled out the possibility, at least for the time being, of the city government levying local taxes as a means of raising funds to replenish the municipal coffers. Under two revised laws passed by the Legislative Yuan on Tuesday, local governments will be allowed to levy taxes of their own. Ma said that even if the city were to make use of the tax-levying power, the prospective revenues would be extremely limited and insufficient to make up the city's ever-increasing deficit, currently at about NT$40 billion (US$1.16 billion) per year. Ma called for the Executive Yuan not to use the new law as a reason to intentionally lower central government fund allocations to local governments.
■ Education
Scientist wins prize
Academia Sinica member Ray Wu (吳瑞) was recently honored by the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation of the US, the Academia Sinica announced yesterday. Academia Sinica said that Wu, 74, received a Frank Annunzio Award in the science and technology field in a ceremony held Oct. 14 in Washington, in recognition of his work in genetic engineering and the development of new cereal crops. According to the news release by Academia Sinica, Rosalyn Queen Alonso, chairwoman of the foundation, said that Wu's research in developing new cereal crops may lead to the end of hunger worldwide and that his "pioneering efforts epitomize the spirit of the Frank Annunzio Awards." Wu, one of the four Frank Annunzio Award recipients this year, is currently a professor of biochemistry/molecular biology at Cornell University. He received his bachelor of science degrees in Chemistry and Biology from the University of Alabama and his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.
■ Conservation
Zoo wins conference rights
The Taipei City Zoo has won the rights to host two large-scale international conservation conferences in 2004, a zoo official announced yesterday. Both the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG) have commissioned the city zoo to organize their 2004 annual congresses, the official said. "The WAZA and CBSG annual conferences will be held in Taipei separately in September 2004, " the official said, adding that the exact dates have yet to be decided. Representatives from more than 40 countries are expected to attend the two conferences, including the heads of some 200 zoos in various major cities, the official said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching