Former DPP heavyweight Wei Ting-chao (
Along with Peng ming-min (
Refusing to join the KMT as a young man, Wei instead joined the opposition movement. He was jailed for activities surrounding the Kaohsiung Incident of 1979.
According to his wife, Wei went to jail several times for his political activities -- for a total of 17 years. The harsh prison conditions contributed to heart problems and high blood pressure, she said.
To maintain his health and following doctors' orders, Wei exercised every morning around 5 am at an elementary school near his home in Chungli.
Yesterday, Wei was doing his exercise routine on the school grounds when he collapsed from an apparent heart attack. Taken to a nearby hospital and placed in the intensive care unit, Wei died an hour later, according to his wife.
Getting around
A few months ago, we told you about a new magazine that was making waves in Kaohsiung called, appropriately enough, Around Kaohsiung. Now the second issue is out -- 40 pages of news, photographs, charts and features. Editor Karen Schmitt says the January/February issue, which is also available on the Internet at http://www.aroundkaohsiung.freeservers.com, shines the spotlight on Kaohsiung's popular Yen Cheng district.
Full of detailed features, directories and how-to articles (and advertisements) the bi-monthly magazine seems to be making a good start and serving an important need in the Kaohsiung area.
All proceeds after printing are donated to local charities, according to Schmitt.
E-mail news tips and stories to:
offthebeat@taipeitimes.com
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS