Presidential advisor Liu Hsia (
Liu had been in hospital for observation following the incident.
The 61-year-old wheelchair-bound Liu, who was also a well-known writer and advocate of the rights of the underprivileged, died of atrial flutter in the Tri-Service General Hospital at 4am.
"The [alleged beating] incident put too heavy a burden on her heart," said Chang De-ming (張德明), a doctor at the hospital.
Liu's family has decided not to file a lawsuit against the Indonesian caregiver, but the Taipei prosecutors' office has started an investigation of the case to see whether charges should be brought.
Liu's family decided to donate her body for medical research as Liu had wished.
President Chen Shui-bian (
The Indonesian caregiver, identified only by the name Vinarsih, is suspected of suffering from conversion disorder, a psychological affliction caused by severe emotional stress, which makes sufferers to be unable to distinguish between reality and imagination, according to a report from the Mackay Memorial Hospital (
Liu's mother said that Liu had been able to tell her that she had awoken to find herself being dragged from her bed by the caregiver Friday.
According to Taipei County police officials, Vinarsih told the police that she had dreamed of Liu's dead father three times, who told her to help Liu because there was an earthquake. Vinarsih said she tried to wake Liu and carry her to a safer place, but was adamant that she did not beat Liu.
After being told that Liu had died, Vinarsih expressed regret.
Prosecutors yesterday took Vinarsih to Liu's house for further investigation.
Liu Chun-lin (
Liu's younger brother, Liu Kan (
"My sister's death would be worthwhile if the government could set up a safety mechanism to ensure that we are not hiring a wolf, a tiger or a murderer," Liu said in the news conference held at the hospital yesterday morning.
Liu suffered from a rare disease called atrophic arthritis, which is related to rheumatoid arthritis.
The malady had destroyed the function of almost 90 percent of her joints. Despite being forced to lie down most of the time and to use a wheelchair to get around, Liu had written more than 1,000 inspirational short stories and articles under her pen name Xing Lin Tzu (
Surprised by Liu's death, friends and colleagues said that her spirit would be always in their hearts and minds.
"Despite her weak physical condition, her psychological condition was always tough. She was a model for this society," said Sun Yuieh (
The Council of Labor Affairs yesterday said that Vinarsih would be repatriated as she had violated regulations by attacking her employer.
Should Vinarsih she found guilty of murder or involuntary manslaughter, she would be repatriated after serving her prison term.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS