■ Diplomacy
Paraguay ties firm: MOFA
Diplomatic relations between the Taiwan and Paraguay remain firm and solid, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦) said yesterday. Shih was responding to media reports that China has been lobbying Brazil to pressure Paraguay to switch its diplomatic recognition to Beijing. Shih said the reports were speculative. He said Taiwan-Paraguay relations are in good shape, noting that President Nicanor Duarte just concluded a state visit to Taipei late last month. After his return to Asuncion, Shih said, Duarte told the Paraguayan press that his visit was very fruitful and that the two countries will negotiate and sign a free-trade agreement within a year. Asked whether Paraguay is likely to yield to pressure from its Southern Common Market allies to switch its diplomatic allegiance, Shih said Duarte has reiterated on many public occasions that Paraguay's diplomatic ties with Taipei have contributed much to the country's economic development over the past decades.
■ Child Abuse
Yu speaks out
Premier Yu Shyi-kun issued a directive yesterday on the building of a nationwide information and rescue network for the protection of abused children. Speaking at the Executive Yuan, Yu said his heart went out to children who had been physically and mentally abused or had been deprived of human rights as a result of family crises. Yu instructed government agencies to address the matter by having specialists make field trips to communities and households as a first step toward building a nationwide network to protect youngsters. The premier said authorities must intervene to save mentally and physically abused children from families and institutions where economic, marital or social problems had made their environments hell.
■ Communications
People phone China a lot
China was the top destination last year for international calls placed from Taiwan, followed by the US and the Philippines, according to figures released yesterday by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications. The statistics showed that Taiwanese people placed 3.08 billion minutes' worth of international calls last year -- an average of 8.43 million minutes per day, up 42.8 percent from the previous year's level. China was the destination for 0.99 billion minutes' worth of calls, or 32.1 percent of the total, followed by the US at 290 million minutes, the Philippines at 270 million minutes, Hong Kong and Macau at 240 million minutes and Thailand at 210 million minutes. A large number of Filipino and Thai laborers work in the country, contributing to those countries' high rankings.
■ Politics
Chen to fete lawyers
To express his appreciation to nearly 800 lawyers who aided the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the recount of votes cast in the presidential election, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will hold a series of banquets in Taichung, Kaohsiung and Taipei on July 4, 7 and 9, respectively. Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), director of the DPP's Information and Culture Department, announced yesterday that Chen would attend the banquets to thank the lawyers for their efforts in the 9-day recount, which set a record for the largest number of lawyers to be involved in a single legal proceeding.
■ Politics
DPP candidates queried
Questions have been raised about some of the 10 candidates the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)nominated on Tuesday for a Kaohsiung City Council by-election. Five candidates are family members or associates of three former city councilors convicted of election fraud in connection with the election of former City Council speaker Chu An-hsuing (朱安雄). Among the DPP's 10 candidates are Hsiao Yeh-chuan (蕭雅捐), who is the wife of former city councilor Chang Ching-chuan (張清泉). Chang was sentenced to 26 months in prison and expelled from the DPP in the vote-buying scandal. Candidate Chao Li-wen (趙麗文) is the wife of former city councilor Kao Tzeng-ying (高宗英) who was sentenced to a six-month jail term. DPP Legislator Lin Chin-hsing (林進興), who was cleared of charges, arranged for his sister Lin Mei-ling (林美玲) and his aides Lin Wu-chung (林武忠) and Cheng Kuang-feng (鄭光豐) to run in the by-
election. Lin Chin-hsing's ex-wife Chang Wen-hsiu (章玟琇), a former city councilor, was convicted of vote-buying in the speaker-election scandal.
■ Society
Man survives 12-story fall
An elderly man who plum-meted 12 stories to the ground after he fell from his apartment balcony while changing a lightbulb sur-vived with only minor bruises, reports said yesterday. Chang Shih-chi, 68, told cable network CTiTV he had lost his balance after suffering an electric shock, but his fall was broken as he bounced off a canvas awning, electric wiring and
a parked car. "The patient fell from the 12th floor to the ground without suffering major injuries. This is a miracle," said the doctor who treated Chang. TV footage showed Chang walking around a hospital ward in Taichung.
■ Society
Rules eased on spouses
Rules on residence appli-cations by Chinese spouses of Taiwanese have been eased after the Bureau of Immigration agreed to simplify the process, a bureau spokesman said yesterday. In the future, undisputed applications will be approved immediately after being examined by
the bureau, the spokesman said, adding that qualifying documents will not have to
be further processed in a joint screening meeting
and applicants will not have to go through an interview with immigration officials. According to the spokesman, the first joint screening meeting was held May 18 to scrutinize a total of 704 applications. Except for a small number of disputed cases, most of the applica-tions were approved at the meeting, he said.
■ Society
Andy going to rehab
The actor known as Andy (安迪) faces a 21-day drug rehabilitation program starting next Tuesday. Authorities have issued a summons requiring him to report that day to the Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office, from where he will be transferred to the Taipei Detention House's rehabili-tation center in Panchiao. The summons stems from an incident last December in which Andy and his wife were videotaped taking drugs and having sex in a private KTV room. Six suspects who tried to use the video to blackmail the couple have been arrested and indicted. The blackmail attempt led prosecutors to conduct an analysis of Andy's hair, which confirmed that he had taken the drug MDMA (ecstasy). Andy's wife was cleared of having used drugs.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
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