Sat, Mar 06, 2004 page3

• Taiwan Quick Take

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ Election

  Election-bet suspects caught

  More people were apprehended over the past two days in the government's campaign to eliminate gambling on the outcome of the March 20 election, the Criminal Investigation Bureau reported yesterday. Under the "Leiting 30" (雷霆三十) campaign launched Wednesday to crack down on underground gambling groups, particularly those applying the Hong Kong horseracing-lottery mechanism to offer bets, police have arrested 149 people suspected of being involved in 135 cases of illegal gambling on the election. Authorities say they have been aware for the last month that wagers on the outcome of the presidential election have been rampant nationwide, particularly in the center and south of the country. Betting, like other forms of gambling, is illegal. The campaign was launched to stop gambling rings from manipulating the election by offering big stakes, officials said.

  ■ Society

  Buddhist elder honored

  President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) decorated a Buddhist elder, Ying Shun (印順), in Taiping, Taichung County, yesterday. In a brief ceremony, the president decorated the 99-year-old elder with the Order of Propitious Clouds with Grand Cordon to honor his contribution to society. Born in Haining County, Zhejian (浙江) province, in 1906, Elder Ying Shun converted to Buddhism in 1930 and devoted himself to the studies of Buddhist theory. He moved to Taiwan in 1953 to promote Buddhism, urge his followers to live out Buddhism in their daily lives, and has been lauded as the most knowledgeable Chinese Buddhist master after Hsuan Chang (玄奘), a Buddhist master who lived from AD 602 to AD 664. Ying Shun was known for harboring a young runaway woman in his temple in Hualien in 1963. The woman, Cheng Yen (証嚴), became an apostle and later founded the well-known Tzu Chi (慈濟) Buddhist Compassionate Relief Foundation.

  ■ Politics

  Article 17 amendment read

  The pan-blue camp's proposed amendment to Article 17 of the Referendum Law (公民投票法) had its first reading in the legislature yesterday and will be reviewed by the Home and Nations Committee next. The amendment would require an emergency order from the president and approval from the legislature before a defensive referendum could be called. The pan-green camp has vowed to block the amendment. Interparty negotiations in the committee could take up to four months, so the proposed amendment will not affect the referendum on March.20.

  ■ Education

  Tsinghua links up with UW

  National Tsinghua University in Hsinchu will sign a cooperative pack in the middle of this month with the Seattle-based University of Washington to boost two-way academic exchanges, according to a school spokesman. The two sides are slated to ink the accord on March 18 at Tsinghua campus, when Yash Gupta, the dean of UW's Business School, will arrive in Taiwan, the spokesman said. Under the terms of the five-year accord, Tsinghua's Technology Management College will invite professors from Washington to teach courses on the world's newest business management know-how, especially designed for government officials and personnel from the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, he said. The two schools will also exchange professors and students to build relations and further strengthen their academic research efforts.
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