■ Diplomacy
Salvadoran president to visit
Salvadoran President Antonio Saca is scheduled to make his first state visit to Taiwan later this month for the second Democratic Pacific Assembly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. During this visit, Saca is also expected to discuss bilateral cooperation on tourism and trade, MOFA officials said. The 39-year-old Saca, a member of the Nationalist Republican Alliance party, was elected president March 21 this year. Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) invited Saca to visit Taiwan when she attended his June 1 inauguration. The second Democratic Pacific Assembly, organized by Lu, is set to take place in Taipei from Aug. 13 to Aug. 15.
■ Society
Cadet cremated
The army cadet who died late last month after developing a fever two days earlier was cremated in Kaohsiung yesterday. The cadet, surnamed Yen, at the Taiwan Military Academy in Fengshan, Kaohsiung, died on July 25 at the age of 20. Because of Yen's outstanding academic performance, the academy decided to present him with an honorary commencement certificate posthumously. Representatives of the army cadets and the school faculty also came to Kaohsiung Municipal Funeral Home to bid farewell to Yen. Yen's death caused alarm, as about two dozen army cadets came down with high fever at about the same time, but their conditions stabilized after treatment in hospitals.
■ Society
Liou in calendar shocker
A Taiwanese-American and former member of US President Bush's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Sean Liou (劉幸誠), has been included in a calendar for the upcoming US Republican National Convention. The Republicans will hold a convention in Santiago, California starting Aug. 6, and a national convention in New York in September. The 2005 calendar aims to highlight the commitment of the Republicans to the protection of civil rights and the determination to promote minority group leaders to serve in major government positions. For this reason, the calendar includes such famous Republicans as President Abraham Lincoln, State Secretary Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. Liou, 47, graduated from a university in Changhua and holds a masters in mathematics from the University of Massachusetts. He serves as a member of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's ?ansition Team?nd is dedicated to helping Asian Americans integrate into American society and upgrade their social status.
■ Diplomacy
Condolences offered
The government is concerned about the large fire that occurred in the downtown area of Paraguay's capital on Sunday and killed nearly 300 people, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday. Anna Kao (高安), deputy director of the ministry's Department of Information and Cultural Affairs, said that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) have sent messages to Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte Frutos to express their sympathy and condolences for the victims. The government and the private sector will also do their utmost in the follow-up relief efforts, Kao said. The fire swept through a busy shopping center on the outskirts of Asuncion at midday on Sunday.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
RSS