Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday called on the military to conduct a new probe into the death of air force staff sergeant Tsai Hsueh-liang (蔡學良), who died of a gunshot wound to the head at a target practice range in May 2008.
Citing new evidence that purportedly contradicts the official military autopsy report, DPP legislators Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) and Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) joined Tsai’s family in making the request at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
The legislators said that a new medical examination and tests by a ballistics expert show that Tsai did not commit suicide — contradicting the military’s report — and suggested the likelihood of death from a gunshot fired by a colleague.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Tsai’s mother, Yu Jui-ming (尤瑞敏), has long believed her son was murdered, saying that he was shot by an airman with a pistol at close range. She has consistently pressed the Ministry of National Defense (MND) — even staging hunger strikes — to open a new investigation.
Tung Yu-yun (董玉芸), head of the Ministry of Justice Department of Prosecutorial Affairs, yesterday agreed to give the new evidence to the Taitung District Prosecutors’ Office, which is investigating.
Separately, the MND said the nation has no plans to deploy missiles or station vessels at Itu Aba (Taiping Island, 太平島), the largest Taiwan-controlled island in the area.
The statement aimed to clarify reports on military activities this week. Minister of National Defense Yen Ming (嚴明) and several legislators visited Itu Aba on Wednesday.
A ministry statement reiterated the nation’s sovereignty in the region and clarified troop deployments.
“Dongsha Islands (東沙群島, Pratas Islands), the Nansha Islands (南沙群島, Spratly Islands) and the surrounding marine areas are the traditional territories of our nation,” it said. “To strengthen the Coast Guard Administration’s ability to defend Dongsha and Nansha, the nation’s military will assist the coast guard with preparation and training to make coast guard units a strong combat fighting force equal to the marine corps.”
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching