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Taiwan Quick Take

■ SOCIETY
Mayor commends late `hero'
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) extended her condolences on Monday to the family of a man who died two days ago of heart and lung failure after helping police officers chase down two teenage suspects. Hsieh Ching-chuan (謝清泉), 57, and his son joined a chase of two suspected thieves early last Saturday after hearing police sirens in their neighborhood. After pursuing the two teenagers for 20 minutes, Hsieh stopped to catch his breath, while his son continued the chase. About 10 minutes later, he heard his son shout that he and the police officers had caught the two suspects in an alley, Hsieh dashed 200m to his son, only to collapse in front of him. He was rushed to the Kaohsiung Municipal United Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. Chen presented NT$50,000 in cash to the family as a token of the Kaohsiung City Government's appreciation for the man's heroic act.

■ TRANSPORTATION
No change in MRT schedule
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said yesterday that the city's mass rapid transit system (MRT) would open as scheduled at the end of the year. Chen made the remarks amid reports that the inauguration of the the MRT system might be delayed because a section of the 28.3km Red Line was only about 80 percent complete. Chen admitted that the section was behind schedule, but said that the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp, which is in charge of the construction, was making all-out efforts to get back on schedule. The MRT system will have two lines -- the Red Line and the Orange Line. The 14.4km Orange Line, which suffered a tunnel collapse near Station 7 and water seepage in Station 1, is not expected to open until the end of next year.

■ POLITICS
Hsieh supports amendments
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday endorsed amendments to the Referendum Law (公投法) proposed by a political pressure group. The Nuke-4 Referendum Initiative Association, which visited Hsieh yesterday, hoped the legislature would approve the changes before the session ends on Jan. 31. The association is seeking to lower the threshold for initial approval of a referendum proposal from 0.5 percent of eligible voters -- or 80,000 voters -- in the last presidential election to 100 voters. It also wants to lower the threshold for the second stage review of a referendum proposal from 5 percent of eligible voters -- or 800,000 voters -- to 1.5 percent, or 240,000 voters. In addition, the association proposed the abolition of the Referendum Review Committee and the lowering of the number of voters required to make a referendum valid from 50 percent to 25 percent.

■ MILITARY
Handshakes will do
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said late on Monday that it would ask boot camp squad leaders to welcome new recruits with a handshake rather than a hug. The announcement came after several legislators questioned Minister of Defense Lee Tien-yu (李天羽) about the military's "hug-hug" policy during an interpellation session earlier on Monday. The ministry later issued a press release saying it had conducted a careful study before implementing the "hug-hug" policy on Oct. 1. As "a handful" of recruits were "not used to being hugged" or were "too shy," the ministry decided to replace the hugs with handshakes starting on Monday, the press release said.


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