Print

Mail

wiki links

Taiwan Quick Take

■ Investigation
Lee to give shooting report
World-renowned forensics expert Henry Lee (李昌鈺) is expected to deliver a report on the March 19 shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on Sunday, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said yesterday. Lee, who visited Taiwan between April 9 and April 11, examining the wounds of the president and vice president and visiting the scene of the shooting and the Chi Mei Medical Center in Tainan, delivered a preliminary report before his departure. Lee then took the evidence he had collected to his Connecticut laboratory for further analysis. Bureau officials said that Lee would make his follow-up report Sunday morning.

■ Travel
Iraq trips discouraged
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a travel advisory for Iraq because of the mounting insurgency there, a senior ministry official said yesterday. "Iraq has been listed as a highly dangerous area in which to travel," Lin Chin-chung (林進忠), the ministry's West Asian Affairs Department deputy director, said. Lin said the ministry has crafted a three-level travel warning system for countries that suffer from disorder, an unstable political situation, backward infrastructure or terrorist activities. Under the system, yellow represents a low-level travel warning, orange indicates a medium-level threat and red indicates that the area is extremely dangerous. Lin said Iraq falls into the red, or highest-tier, category. Noting that the Iraq situation is not expected to stabilize in the near future, Lin advised local people not to go to Iraq for the time being. No Taiwanese expatriates live in Iraq at the moment, he said.

■ Government
Resignation confirmed
Department of Health Director General Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) confirmed a report Wednesday about the resignation of Center for Disease Control Director-General Su Ih-jen (蘇益仁). Chen said that he had approved Su's resignation and submitted it to the Executive Yuan. According to Chen, Su wishes to leave his post due to conflicts with his career plans. Chen said that Su has said several times that he would resume his research work at the National Health Research Institute as soon as he steps down. When asked about his own career, Chen said only that he would resign along with other Cabinet members on May 12 in a weekly Executive Yuan meeting, like Premier Yu Shyi-kun has said that all Cabinet members would do.

■ Society
`Rapist' loses his tongue
A woman bit off a quarter of an attempted rapist's tongue when the man brought her into an empty building and tried to assault her, police said yesterday. Police said the 37-year-old man, identified as Lin, met the young woman on Wednesday evening at a railway station in Keelung. Lin offered to show the woman a "ghost building" behind the railway station, so the woman followed him into an empty three-story building. "After they had climbed to the second floor, Lin grabbed the woman and forcibly kissed her. The woman fought Lin and bit off a quarter of his tongue," a police officer told local television. Bleeding profusely, Lin fled the scene but was soon arrested by police when he went to hospital for treatment. Police found the detached part of Lin's tongue but said it was too late to have it reattached.

This story has been viewed 2157 times.