■ Business
Ohio delegation arriving
Ohio Governor Bob Taft will lead a large delegation to Taiwan today for a three-day visit, according to a press release issued yesterday by the American Institute in Taiwan. The group will be made up of about 50 representatives from more than 30 companies and organizations. The delegation will identify local companies interested in investing in Ohio, promote Ohio exports and build educational, social and cultural exchanges between Ohio and Taiwan. Taiwan is one of Ohio's top-20 export markets and is a growing source of advanced technology collaborations. Last year Ohio's exports to Taiwan were worth approximately US$201.48 million.
■ Politics
Activist quits KMT post
Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛), president of the Modern Women's Foundation yesterday resigned her position as head of the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) women's affairs department to concentrate on her legislative election campaign. Pan announced her resignation at KMT party headquarters in Taipei yesterday, promising to promote women's issues if she were elected. Pan said she would work for greater female representation in government, the establishment of a gender equality committee in the Executive Yuan, push for a birth health bill and initiate reforms to the Gender Equality Education Law (性別平等教育法). Pan said she would also push for the creation of a women's entrepreneurship fund.
■ Society
PTS holds racism seminar
A two-day seminar next month on ethnic conflict will provide a forum to talk about everyday experiences with racism, social welfare groups said yesterday. Sponsored by the Peacetime Foundation and the Reading Times Foundation, the forum will take a comprehensive look at ethnic conflict. The forum is co-sponsored by the Public Television Service. The seminar is entitled "The Words of the People" and will be held on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24. People over the age of 16 are encouraged to register, and selected participants will have the chance to join small group discussions with experts. Participants will be representative of all levels and sectors of society, foundation representatives said. The seminar will be recorded by PTS and screened in November. To apply, see the seminar's Web page at www.pts.org.tw/php/vote/9309_pub/index.php. The fee is NT$5,000.
■ Judiciary
Phone records recovered
Prosecutors yesterday said they had acquired the mobile phone records of independent Legislator Su Ying-kuei (蘇盈貴) as part of an investigation into whether two grand justices attempted to persuade him to veto the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute (三一九槍擊事件真相調查特別委員會條例). The probe was launched after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Tsung-yi (陳宗義) filed a slander suit on Sept. 22. Yesterday Chen visited Prosecutor-General Morley Shih (施茂林), asking that prosecutors summon him as well as Su as soon as possible, and claiming that "he also knew something about the case." Shih told Chen Tsung-yi that prosecutors were reviewing Su's phone records and would begin summoning witnesses at the appropriate time. After alleging the grand justices had tried to persuade him to veto the statute, Su refused to name them. Chen said Su had insulted the public and defamed the justices.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
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