■ Law
Death penalty ruling upheld
The Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence handed to a boat captain for the drowning of six Chinese women, a court official said yesterday. The court Thursday rejected the appeal of Wang Chung-hsing (王中興), convicted of homicide and given a death sentence by the high court. A crew member was sentenced to life in prison for the same offence. Wang and his crew member Ko Ching-sung (柯清松) were accused of pushing 13 Chinese women into the sea when their human smuggling vessel was spotted by Taiwan's coast patrol in August last year. Six women drowned. The supreme court also upheld the life sentence for Ko along with a NT$200,000 fine.
■ Politics
Ex-legislative speaker dies
Former Legislative Speaker and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) old guard Liang Su-jung (梁肅戎) passed away yesterday as a result of complications brought on by pneumonia. Liang was admitted into the hospital on Aug. 15 for having a serious cold. His condition soon deteriorated, and he went into shock on Wednesday. He died late yesterday night. Liang is survived by his three sons and three daughters. A close friend of Liang's said that whenever Liang was ill, he remained concerned with the merger plan for the pan-blue camp, and he even took a day's leave from the hospital to visit KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) to express his support for the merger. Liang was a firm supporter of reunification with China. He was 84 years old.
■ Military
MND helps typhoon victims
The military expanded its assistance of victims of Typhoon Aere yesterday. According to a press release by the Ministry of National Defense, it assigned another 4,128 soldiers, 143 planes, 25 pumps, 131 dumpster trucks help clear the destruction brought on by the typhoon. Taipei County's Sanchung and Hsinchuang areas severely flooded during the typhoon on which struck the nation on Aug. 24 and Aug. 25. In Hsinchu's Wufong Township, where mudslide allegedly buried 15 people alive, the army sent C-47 aircraft to carry four compact bulldozers to help local residents clean up the remains of their homes. The ministry said that it will assign more military personnel to join rescue activities or help residents recover from the devastation.
■ Health
Donations sought care fees
Officials of Taiwan's representative office in Canada have recently called for financial relief for a teenage girl, Chien Hsiao-an (簡孝安), from Taiwan who has been receiving treatment for cancer at a hospital in Montreal since early summer. The officials said Chien flew to Montreal from Taiwan at the beginning of her summer vacation to visit relatives. During her stay there, however, she was admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal after doctors there diagnosed that her cancer had metastased to her brain. Chien underwent emergency surgery at the hospital. However, before she can leave the country, her family has to pay over US$250,000 in hospital fees, as well as an additional US$43,500 for the medical flight, according to the office. The officials said that because they lack medical insurance in Canada, the family now faces great financial difficulties.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS