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Taiwan News Quick Take

■ ENVIRONMENT

Dead fish litter Penghu

Tonnes of fish, from carp to tropical specimens, have washed up dead along 320km of Penghu's beaches because of low temperatures earlier this month, Penghu County environmental staffer Hsu Ching-fang said yesterday. About 45 tonnes of fish, both wild and farmed, have appeared on the beaches since Feb. 14, Hsu said. Media reports said yesterday that 10 times that amount of dead fish were still in the water, adding it was the worst mass killing off Penghu in 30 years. "Every beach in Penghu has been hit with fish in varying amounts," Hsu said. "This is something we haven't seen before." Local schools have sent their students to help with the clean-up effort. The government has allocated NT$1 million (US$34,000) for clean-up effortss, Hsu said, adding that tourists can still use the beaches.



■ DIPLOMACY

NSC chief going to Seoul

National Security Council Secretary-General Mark Chen (陳唐山) will attend South Korean president-elect Lee Myung-bak's inauguration on Monday on behalf of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), a Presidential Office source said yesterday. The president decided on Thursday to have the NSC chief lead the Taiwanese delegation to the ceremony in Seoul, the official said. Lee will be sworn in as South Korea's 17th president.



■ ECONOMY

DGBAS says deficit smaller

The government's fiscal deficit dropped to NT$30 billion (US$960 million) last year, thanks to a 5.7 percent economic growth rate and an increase in tax revenue, Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) Director-General Hsu Jan-yau said yesterday. Local companies enjoyed earnings growth and the government registered an increase in overall tax revenue as a result of the country's stable economic growth last year, Hsu said. The total tax revenue totalled NT$1.7 trillion last year, surpassing the budgeted level by NT$120 billion, with the central government seeing an increase of NT$90 billion in tax revenue, Hsu said, adding that the increase has been reflected in the narrowing of the fiscal deficit. Preliminary calculations show the overall budget surplus amounted to nearly NT$70 billion. While taking the special budget deficit into account, the government's deficit stood at NT$30 billion, a huge drop from a NT$314.7 billion deficit in 2003, Hsu said.



■ MEDICINE

Trial volunteers sought

The Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital said yesterday that it was looking for people willing to participate in a stem cell therapy trial project using umbilical cord blood for spinal cord injuries. Chen Tze-yung (陳子勇), vice president of the hospital's Taichung branch and project chief, said they hope to get 80 volunteers for the first observation stage of the trial from March 1 to June 30. Tzu Chi hospitals' research efforts into spinal cord therapy have gained recognition both at home and abroad, Chen said, as well as sponsorship money from the US, Hong Kong and China for this project. The project will not involve any invasive examinations or treatment and will not require the people to stop their regular treatments, he said. The hospital will only collect and register the information of the patients, he said.
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