Sun, Sep 23, 2012 page3

• Taiwan News Quick Take

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  WEATHER

  Cold front to hit Taiwan

  The mercury is expected to drop nationwide from today as a cold front accompanied by seasonal winds is to pass over Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The air movement may bring a cool and wet weather pattern across the nation with the effects most likely to be felt in the northern and northeastern regions, it said. The trend might continue for a week, the bureau said, with daily temperatures forecast to range between 22°C and 30°C in northern Taiwan, between 24°C and 31°C in central Taiwan, and between 25°C and 31°C in southern Taiwan. Meanwhile, more rain is expected starting next Friday caused by the outer rim of an approaching tropical storm, the bureau said. As of 8am yesterday, Tropical Strom Jelawat was centered 1,470km southeast of the southernmost tip of Taiwan, moving slowly in a westerly direction.

  SOCIETY

  Poverty levels increase

  There were 137,000 low-income households in the country as of the end of June, an increase of 20.2 percent from the same period last year, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The number of low-income individuals for the same period stood at 338,000 people, up 22.4 percent, and increased to 1.5 percent of the total population as a result of the easing of regulations governing public assistance introduced last year, the ministry said. The implementation of an amendment to the Social Assistance Act (社會救助法) in July last year allowed 71,000 households or 228,000 individuals, considered to be “lower middle income” earners to receive government subsidies as of this June. Currently, 2.6 percent of families in Taiwan and 2.4 percent of the total population are receiving help from the government, the ministry said.

  EDUCATION

  Global role for academics

  Five members of Academia Sinica, the nation’s top academic research institute, have been elected to the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), headquartered in Italy, the institute said in a statement on Friday. Chang Tzu-ching (張慈錦), an assistant research fellow at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, was elected a 2012 TWAS Young Affiliate — an honor awarded annually to exceptional scientists aged under 40. The five academicians elected as TWAS fellows were Wang Kuan (王寬), director of the Academia Sinica’s Institute of Chemistry; Wang Lu-hai (王陸海), acting president and distinguished investigator of the National Health Research Institutes’ Division of Molecular and Genomic Medicine; Liang Kung-yee (梁賡義), president of National Yang-Ming University; Chu Shih-i (朱時宜), director of the Kansas Center for Advanced Scientific Computing and Hu Chenming (胡正明), a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California at Berkeley.

  AVIATION

  Airline looks for new recruits

  Over 4,000 people were interviewed yesterday in the first stage of a selection process to hire 126 flight attendants for China Airlines (CAL), the nation’s largest carrier. CAL’s recruitment drive, its second this year, is being conducted in two stages as part of its business expansion plan. The airline said it hopes to find flight attendants with excellent communication skills. An independent panel of representatives from the government, academic and industrial sectors would be interviewing more than 4,000 applicants over the weekend, CAL said.
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