The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) yesterday ruled out the possibility the assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (
Bureau commissioner Hou You-yi (
Chen received a gash across his stomach and Vice President Annette Lu (
"It is impossible that the assassination attempt was orchestrated because the car was moving and no marksman could have this kind of shooting technique," Hou told reporters, adding that the open-topped jeep was travelling at 30kph.
Senior officers told reporters in Taipei they would leave "no stone unturned" in their investigation. But the special police unit set up to investigate the case still had no specific suspect despite having interviewed about 400 witnesses, checked photographs and video footage from the scene and carried out detailed ballistics investigations.
Police also said that DNA analysis proved blood found on the two bullets belonged to Chen and Lu.
Judy Cheng of the CIB told reporters the videotapes showed two shots were fired at Chen and Lu somewhere along a 50m stretch of the road where two bullet shells were found.
Video footage and witness accounts revealed Chen had started feeling ill within 50m.
Chen said he first believed he had been hit by a firecracker when he felt a sharp pain in his belly.
"I bore the pain and continued waving to my supporters as the motorcade proceeded,"Chen said yesterday. in his first public comments about the shooting.
He only realized he had been shot when the bodyguard told him he was bleeding, he saw Lu's bloody knee and spotted the bullet hole in the windscreen.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56