SOCIETY
Tang Prize to unveil winners
The winners of the first Tang Prize, an award established by Taiwanese tycoon Samuel Yin (尹衍樑), are to be announced over four days starting tomorrow. The Tang Prize aims to supplement the Nobel prizes by honoring top researchers in four fields that it deems critical in the 21st century. The first laureates in the category of “sustainable development” are to be announced tomorrow, followed by “biopharmaceutical science” winners on Thursday, “Sinology” winners on Friday and “rule of law” winners on Saturday. Up to three winners in each category are to share a cash prize of NT$50 million (US$1.66 million). The awards ceremony will be held on Sept. 18.
TRAVEL
Online passports successful
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to expand its online service allowing Taiwanese to make an appointment to apply for a passport, the Bureau of Consular Affairs said. Launched in December last year, the online service allows users to fill in their information on the bureau’s Web site and make an appointment to visit its Taipei office to complete the process of obtaining a new passport or renewing an expired one, the bureau said. Once the service is extended to other parts of the country in August, applicants can make appointments at the bureau’s offices in Greater Taichung, Chiayi, Greater Kaohsiung and Hualien, it said, adding that it should take no more than 20 minutes to finish the application procedure. Before the service was launched, applicants needed to visit the bureau’s headquarters or other offices, fill in application forms there, and line up for sometimes long periods, a bureau official said.
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
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