■ Politics
Anti-Chen rally in New York
More than 200 Taiwanese-Americans on Friday denounced the re-election of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), using the term "stolen presidency." The group held a protest near UN headquarters in New York, holding banners and posters that called for an inquiry into the assassination attempt against Chen and his running mate Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on the eve of the election. Chen's opponents accused him of staging the shooting in order to gain sympathy from voters. A statement handed out by the protesters said that the election was "unfair and anti-democratic." The demonstrators, who waved Taiwanese and US flags, held banners that said, "Taiwan Fraud Election," "Stolen Presidency in Taiwan" and "Liar, Liar, Liar A-bian (阿扁)." The lunch-hour protest ended without incident. The demonstrators claimed that more than 330,000 "invalid ballots" had been discovered since the recount began.
■ Diplomacy
US state backs WHA bid
The New York State Assembly unanimously passed a resolution in support of Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer, according to the head of a Taiwanese-American group. The resolution, which was passed Wednesday, recognizes contributions made by Taiwanese-Americans to the US, and recognizes their efforts to promote Taiwan's bid to join the WHA as an observer, said Wu Ming-kee, president of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs. Copies of the resolution were sent to US President George W. Bush, the US Department of Health and Human Services and WHO headquarters in Geneva. The resolution was initiated by New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and co-signed by New York State Assembly members Richard Gottfried, Barry Grodenchik, Catherine Nolan and Earlene Hooper, Wu said.
■ Hakka affairs
League established
During an annual conference on Hakka college organizations, the establishment of the National Collegiate Hakka League (全國大學客家聯合會) was announced. The league aims to encourage exchanges of Hakka culture among universities and to plan intercollegiate Hakka events. More specifically, league representatives said that the league has three main goals: to encourage Hakka youth to embrace their heritage and introduce Hakka culture to non-Hakka people; to establish a forum for discussion of Hakka issues among colleges; and to pool the resources of Hakka associations and groups in universities nationwide. The founding of the league is the result of months of planning, research and consultation. The league is made up of students from National Taiwan University, National Taiwan Normal University, National Chengchi University and Chinese Culture University, and encourages individuals with and without Hakka heritage to become members.
■ Earthquake
Temblor rattles Ilan
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale rocked northeastern Taiwan yesterday. No damage was reported. Central Weather Bureau officials said the epicenter of the quake was 18.8km east-northeast of the Ilan seismic station in Ilan County and originated 91.7km below the earth's surface. The quake, which occurred at 1:07pm, had an intensity of 3.0 in Newdou, Ilan County and Shihtang, Miaoli County; 2.0 in Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Hualien counties; and 1.0 in Taipei City and Changhua.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS