■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.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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