■ POLITICS
KMT expels Tainan speaker
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday revoked the party membership of Tainan County Council Speaker Wu Chien-bao (吳健保) following his indictment in a professional baseball match-fixing scandal. Banciao District prosecutors on Wednesday indicted 24 people for fixing games in exchange for money and sex. Prosecutors have also requested a nine-year prison sentence and a fine of NT$50 million (US$1.6 million) for Wu, accusing the council speaker of fraud and involvement in organized crime. “Wu's behavior has damaged the KMT’s reputation and violated party regulations. His membership should be revoked immediately,” KMT’s Disciplinary Committee said in a statement yesterday.
■ SOCIETY
AIT reports missing person
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) is asking the public to help locate a missing US citizen. According to AIT, 62-year-old Fu Duong Vuong (王補養) was last seen on Feb. 5 leaving a relative's home in Taipei City's Wenshan District (文山). She was wearing a light blue shirt, black pants, black shoes and carrying a red umbrella. Fu’s family said she has early stage Alzheimer's Disease and did not have any medication or money with her when she went missing. Anyone who has information on Fu can call the Taipei City Immigration unit at (02) 2389-2650 or report it to the local police station. For details, see www.ait.org.tw.
■ POLITICS
US' China policy 'changing'
The US government has adopted an increasingly tougher stance on its dealings with China, said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑), who had just returned from a visit to the US. Hsieh said yesterday that many of the US lawmakers and academics he met during his visit said there had been “subtle” changes in Washington's China policy since US President Barack Obama's moderate and low-key approach toward China had not received a positive response from Beijing, as evidenced by its attitude on international issues such as the value of the Chinese currency and climate change. After being criticized as being “too weak,” the Obama administration has recently become tougher toward China, Hsieh said, citing Obama's approval late last month of an arms sales package to Taiwan and the possibility that he might meet with the Dalai Lama. “Subtle changes are taking place among the triangular Taipei-Washington-Beijing relations, and Taiwan should try to strike a strategic balance in the relationship to pursue its best interests,” Hsieh said.
■ CRIME
Pirates release trawler
Somali pirates yesterday freed a Taiwanese trawler they had used as a “mother ship” to attack other vessels during a 10-month ordeal that three crew did not survive, a maritime watchdog said. The Win Far 161, hijacked on April 6 last year near the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, was freed for a “relatively small ransom,” said a statement by Ecoterra International, an environmental NGO monitoring maritime activity in the region. The Win Far was the longest-running case of Somali piracy, with two Indonesians and one Chinese among the original crew of 30 dying during their last month of captivity, Ecoterra said. “The three died of malnutrition, disease and neglect over the course of the last month,” Ecoterra said, adding that the hostages’ respective authorities did not provide any assistance in attempts to facilitate humanitarian relief.
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
The government would cancel kendo practitioner Su Yu-cheng’s (蘇郁程) nationality if he is confirmed to have represented China in the World Kendo Championships in Milan, Italy, last week, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. “We have consulted the Sports Administration and were told that athletes participating in the championships must have the nationality of the country that they represent. They must also present their passports as proof,” council spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a weekly news conference. “If Su indeed represented China in the championships, we suspect that he has obtained Chinese nationality.” The Act Governing Relations Between the People of the
FATAL ILLNESS: Untreated symptoms can rapidly worsen to complications such as high fever, seizures and loss of consciousness, and can be life-threatening, a doctor said Hospitals have been reporting dozens of people with heat-related illnesses every day over the past week, given continuous high daytime temperatures, so recognizing the early signs of heatstroke is crucial in preventing serious complications, a Taipei City Hospital emergency physician said. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a heat alert for 19 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures in New Taipei City, Miaoli County and Pingtung County likely to exceed 38°C, and temperatures in 12 cities and counties likely to exceed 36°C for three days straight. More than a dozen people were taken to hospitals for heat-related illnesses every day from