The legislature reached a consensus yesterday to invite Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) to report on his administrative plan when the fall legislative session begins on Sept. 19.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who convened cross-party negotiations on the issue yesterday morning, said he hoped the legislature would complete the review of the government’s budget requests for the next fiscal year by the end of December.
“The premier’s administrative report is a must on the first day of the session,” he said.
“We also hope to put the government’s fiscal budget requests to review as soon as possible and complete the review by the end of this year instead of stalling it till January or February,” he said.
The Budget Act (預算法) stipulates that the budget requests must be passed by the legislature at least one month before the end of the current fiscal year and be promulgated by the president 15 days before that.
Wang said the premier, the head of the Directorate General of Budget, AAccounting and Statistics and the minister of finance would be invited to report on the budget requests on Sept. 26 and Sept. 30.
The legislature would then deal with the president’s nominations for the Council of Grand Justices, the president of the Examination Yuan and vice president of the Control Yuan next month, he A.
Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Lin Hsi-shan (林錫山) said on Monday that the Presidential Office should submit its lists to the legislature by Sept. 22. If the Cabinet decided to propose reduction of stock transaction tax, the legislature would also complete its review of the proposal quickly, Wang said.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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