■ Society
Chen mourns blaze victims
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) paid a visit to the Panchiao Municipal Funeral Home yesterday to mourn those who were killed in an early morning fire in Taipei County's Luchou township a day earlier. Chen said he feels sorrow and deep regret over the death of 13 residents at an eight-floor apartment building in Luchou on the outskirts of Taipei which was engulfed in an inferno early Sunday morning. Chen extended his condolences to the bereaved families of the victims. He also directed the Taipei County Government to do whatever it can to help all affected families rebuild their lives after the tragedy. At least 71 other residents were injured in the blaze allegedly caused by a woman who set herself on fire after a quarrel with her husband. The blaze engulfed the apartment building at around 1:50 am.
■ Employment
Loans fund gets boost
The Executive Yuan announced yesterday it has set aside an additional NT$350 billion (US$10.29 billion) in soft loans for labor-intensive industries as an existing program offering such loans has run out of funds. Under the program, which was originally set to expire Oct. 19, some NT$1.1 trillion (US$32.35 billion) had been extended in loans as of Aug. 15, more than the NT$1.05 trillion (US$30.88 billion) budget prepared by the Executive Yuan when the program began on Oct. 20, 2000. With the appropriation of the new funds, the program will be extended for one year to Oct. 19 next year, according to the Executive Yuan. The new funds will provide loans with interest rates between 2.7 percent and 3.2 percent to another 42,000 companies and will bring the total amount of loans in this category to NT$1.4 trillion (US$41.17 billion).
■ Police
Stay neutral, Yu tells force
Premier Yu Shyi-kun urged the country's police officers yesterday to be politically neutral on the job. Speaking at the 67th anniversary of the National Police University in Taoyuan County, the premier said that there are many factors that combine to make up democracy, such as the freedom of expression, the right of association, an independent judiciary and others, but one of the most important and as yet unrealized factor in this country is a non-partisan administration. In order to have a non-partisan administration, the armed forces and policemen should pledge their loyalties to the people and should be controlled by the country. As law enforcers, police should serve the country rather than debase themselves by being used as a tool by any individual, the premier said. In this regard, police not only keep the peace, but safeguard democracy, Yu said.
■ Crime
Businessman abducted
A Taiwanese businessman was reportedly kidnapped by several armed men at his home in Manila last Friday, informed sources said yesterday. According to the sources, the armed men might be Philippine military service members who reportedly displayed a court arrest warrant when taking the Taiwanese man, surnamed Chien, away from his home. Nevertheless, the sources said, it remains unclear whether the warrant was genuine or fake. The sources said Chien's family had received a phone call demanding 10 million pesos in ransom. Philippine police have yet to confirm the case, while Chien's family and the Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce in Manila also declined to give any details for fear of affecting Chien's safety.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift