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Taiwan Quick Take

■ CRIME
Dead man shooting
Police arrested a man caught shooting drugs in a coffin on Monday night, a local daily reported yesterday. Chung Kuo-jen (鍾國仁), 32, of Taoyuan County, went to a cemetery on Monday night and snuck into an empty coffin, where he prepared to shoot heroin, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper) said. At about 11:30pm, patrol officers passing by the cemetery noticed a flickering light and decided to investigate. They found the light coming from a coffin, in which a man was sitting and injecting himself with a syringe. Chung was so shocked at the sight of the police he thought he was seeing ghosts, the report said. He was arrested and will undergo narcotics treatment at a rehabilitation center before serving time in jail.

■ POLITICS
Chen to do volunteer work
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) will spend Sunday -- which marks the beginning of his last year in office -- cleaning up an oil spill off Pingtung County in keeping with an annual tradition he began in 2001. In previous years Chen marked the occasion by volunteering to feed elderly patients in hospitals, washing cars, picking up street litter, volunteering at a recycling plant and cleaning the beach. More people have been encouraged to do volunteer work since he initiated the campaign in 2001, Chen said, citing official data that showed the number of people below 30 years of age doing volunteer work has risen from 8,963 in 2002 to 27,071 last year. Chen also plans to spend the evening watching a children's play in his hometown in Kuantien Township (官田), Tainan County. The performance, which kicked off on Jan. 3, will conclude on Sunday. Chen has been subsidizing the group's performance in his hometown as well as in 18 townships in outlying islands.

■ LANGUAGES
Hoklo help online
A handbook explaining a new Romanization system for the Hoklo language -- commonly known as Taiwanese -- is now available online, the Ministry of Education announced yesterday. The press release followed an earlier announcement that a new computer input system for Hoklo based on the romanization system is downloadable on the ministry's Web site. The handbook, which can be downloaded in its entirety, explains syllabic structures and tones, among other aspects, of the new system, the ministry. The Web site can be found at www.edu.tw/EDU_WEB/Web/MANDR/index.php.

■ POLITICS
Ker Chien-ming files suit
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) yesterday filed a lawsuit against 96 former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials who served during the KMT era over their use of their special allowance funds. The KMT had filed a lawsuit on May 1 against 102 current and retired DPP government officials over the use of their special allowance funds, as part of its efforts to clear KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of embezzlement charges. Ma was indicted by prosecutors in February on charges of embezzlement over his use of his mayoral special allowance fund during his term as Taipei mayor. Ker said he took the legal action on behalf of the party, adding that it was meant to counter the KMT's lawsuit against the DPP. "If we don't take legal action, it might seem that only DPP officials could be involved in irregularities in using their special allowance funds," Ker said.


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