■ POLITICS
Hsieh Wen-ting appointed
Hsieh Wen-ting (謝文定), a head prosecutor with the Supreme Prosecutors Office, will serve as the new secretary-general of the Judicial Yuan, sources said on Sunday. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had nominated Hsieh to serve as state public prosecutor-general, but the legislative vetoed the nomination. The source said Judicial Yuan President Lai In-jaw (賴英照), who assumed office yesterday, had invited Hsieh to serve as chief of staff. Hsieh said he had accepted Lai's invitation. A changeover ceremony for the Judicial Yuan president and vice president was to be held yesterday morning. Lai will replace Weng Yueh-sheng (翁岳生), who is retiring. Hsieh Tsay-chuan (謝在全) will be sworn in as Judicial Yuan vice president.
■ CULTURE
Museum holds birthday sale
The National Palace Museum will open a three-day sale on Friday on a wide range of publications,reproductions and souvenirs in celebration of its 81st anniversary, a spokesman said yesterday. The annual sale -- held in the museum's Library Building -- will include reproductions of paintings and calligraphic works from the Sung, Yuan, Ming and Ching dynasties. Other items include illustrated catalogues of rare paintings and calligraphy from the Sung dynasty, catalogs of ceramic ware from government-owned kilns in the imperial dynasties and catalogs of costumes of the Ching dynasty. Other items, including silk scarves, vases, mugs, lacquer boxes, neckties and inkstones, will also be on sale.
■ ENVIRONMENT
Review committee sparks ire
The Environmental Protection Administration's (EPA) Environmental Impact Review Committee yesterday voted to form a special taskforce to review construction of a Formosa Plastics steel plant in Yunlin. EPA Minister Winston Dang (陳重信), however, ruled toward the end of the meeting that the conclusion was still pending, since some of the committee members questioned the validity of the voting process. Other members also questioned Formosa's ability to fulfill the promises it had made during the review. The committee had previously determined that the case should be reviewed in the next evaluation phase, in which the developer will be asked to submit a more detailed environmental impact report. The result enraged environmentalists and local representatives at yesterday's committee meeting. They accused the EPA of rubber-stamping development projects. Liou Ming-lung (劉銘龍), chairman of the Environmental Quality Protection Foundation, said he and other activists would seek the support of lawmakers to question the EPA over the matter during this legislative session.
■ TECHNOLOGY
`Sugar chips' touted
Researchers at Academia Sinica have completed the development of a new "sugar chip" that can diagnose cancerous cells and bacterial or viral infections within seconds with high accuracy, sources said yesterday. The chips, based on glycan micro-array technology, detect specific interactions between carbohydrates and proteins to determine the onset of known diseases, academics said. The team at the Genomics Research Center will next use the chip to try to detect HIV and avian influenza. Liang Pi-hui (梁碧惠), a post-doctoral researcher at the center, said the chip only required a small sample and just seconds to produce results with nearly 100 percent accuracy.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS