President Chen Shui-bian
Chen and Lee went to National Taiwan University Hospital, where Yu's mother, Huang Shou-chu
Cabinet spokesman Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢) said yesterday that the hospital informed the premier that the condition of his mother, who was suffering from lung cancer, had begun to deteriorate at 3:40pm on Friday.
"The premier canceled everything on his schedule and rushed to the hospital," Chuang said.
Huang died at 7:30pm. According to the hospital, the cancer had spread to her liver and she suffered complications including pneumonia and pleural effusion, which led to the failure of her heart and lungs. She was 78.
The president visited Huang at the hospital two weeks ago after the premier had offered to resign over the government's about-face on reform of farmers' and fishermen's associations.
Yu expressed his gratitude to the president and Vice President Annette Lu
Yu's father died when he was 14 years old. Yu, as the oldest child, dropped out of school to help his mother earn enough money for the family.
The premier once recalled that he often studied on the back of a cow. He was 38 when he finally graduated from university.
Yu said that when he was campaigning as a provincial councilor candidate in 1981, his mother questioned whether he would remember his humble background if he were elected.
"Those who have the fortune to be provincial councilors all have their stars in heaven. What about you?" Huang asked him.
After becoming premier, Yu once said that without his mother's support, it would have been impossible for him to survive his years as a youth.
Yu said his interest in public affairs was largely nurtured by his mother.
"As a child, my mother often asked me to help with household chores and sent me to our neighbors' houses. As a result, I had a lot of opportunities to get involved in neighborhood affairs," Yu said.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
Labor rights groups yesterday called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, days after CNN reported alleged far-ranging abuses in the sector, including deaths and forced work. The ministry must enforce domestic labor protection laws on Taiwan-owned deep-sea fishing vessels, the Coalition for Human Rights for Migrant Fishers told a news conference outside the ministry in Taipei after presenting a petition to officials. CNN on Sunday reported that Taiwanese seafood giant FCF Co, the owners of the US-based Bumble Bee Foods, committed human rights abuses against migrant fishers, citing Indonesian migrant fishers. The alleged abuses included denying