■WEATHER
CWB monitors Sinlaku
The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) may issue a sea alert for Typhoon Sinlaku as it could move toward Taiwan, the bureau said yesterday. Sinlaku was upgraded from a tropical storm at 2am yesterday. As of 5:45pm, its center was located 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) in Pingtung County and it was moving north at a speed of 7km. The maximum wind speed near the center reached level 13 on the Beaufort scale. The radius of the storm topped 180km. Sinlaku was moving slowly because it lacked a guiding stream, and its path has been rather unpredictable as it has a tendency to shift from side to side. Because of the typhoon’s circumfluence, chances of showers or heavy rain remain high in the mountainous areas in the north and the northeast, the bureau said.
■SOCIETY
Adoptive parents sought
A charity in Kaohsiung City appealed on Tuesday for adoptive parents to care for six babies who range in age from one month to eight months. Guo Liang-ling (郭亮玲), chairwoman of the Hui Ji Charity of Kaohsiung, said a baby boy and five girls were left with the charity in the last few months by either unwed mothers or financially strapped parents who could not afford to raise their children. She said all six were in good health, although one appears to have a hereditary disease. The charity has limited facilities and a small staff, so it cannot take care of all six infants, Guo said.
■SOCIETY
Animal rights highlighted
Kaohsiung City Government will launch a series of animal rights education programs for elementary, junior high and high school students on Tuesday, the city government said yesterday. Deputy Kaohsiung Mayor Lin Jen-yi (林仁益) told a press conference that lectures will be given at 15 schools. The city government will also hold a painting competition for students to show their concern for animals through their creativity, he said. The city government hopes to help students learn compassion and respect for all living beings, he said.
■SOCIETY
Cross-strait marriages rise
One out of every six couples married in Taipei City in the first seven months of this year were cross-strait or cross-cultural couples, the city government said yesterday. A total of 1,604 Taipei residents married overseas nationals, including those from China, Hong Kong and Macau, between January and July, representing 15.83 percent of all residents who got married during that period, the Department of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said. Most of the foreign spouses came from China — 819 — with 789 men marrying Chinese women, and 30 women marrying Chinese men. Officials attributed the growing number of cross-strait and interracial marriages to increased business and trade between Taiwan and China, as well as Taipei’s increasing globalization.
■SOCIETY
Free bus rides for Taichung
Taichung City will offer free bus rides during peak hour next year to help its residents get used to taking public transport ahead of the construction of its metro system, Deputy Taichung Mayor Hsiao Chia-chi (蕭家旗) said yesterday. Although the city’s bus ridership has increased to 1.8 million per month from the previous level of just over 300,000, Hsiao said, bus commuters account for only 10 percent of the city’s total population. The ratio must be raised to a range between 20 percent and 30 percent to reach a balance in the future metro operations, he said.
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
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