The ashes of a non-commissioned navy officer who committed suicide in the US last week were brought back to Taiwan Tuesday.
Naval authorities said the Navy General Headquarters (NGH) has assigned staff to assist Chief Petty Officer Wu Chin-chung's (吳進忠) family in handling their affairs. Wu's ashes have been placed in a makeshift memorial hall at a military hospital near the Tsoying naval base in southern Taiwan.
The NGH has also formed a special task force to investigate the possible cause of Wu's suicide, a Naval Fleet Command official said.
"We'll get to the bottom of the incident and find out who should be held responsible for it," the official said.
Wu was a member of the Republic of China Navy staff working at a US shipyard in South Carolina in preparation for taking delivery of four Kidd-class destroyers that Taiwan purchased from the US in 2001. The four destroyers were originally built for the Shah of Iran in 1979, but were later mothballed when Iran canceled the deal. The four warships are being refurbished and are undergoing maintenance in the US before being delivered to Taiwan.
Wu was found by his colleagues to have strangled himself aboard one of the destroyers Jan. 26, according to naval sources. Wu's colleagues immediately performed emergency first aid and informed their superiors of the incident.
After receiving the information from the US naval base, the Naval Fleet Command immediately notified Wu's family in Taiwan of the tragedy and sent staff members to provide assistance.
In the past, Taiwan has sent special naval teams to the US to receive training and take delivery of US-built warships. As the work is very complicated and stressful, military sources said, some incidents involving naval staff have been reported in the past.
Wu's grandmother was heartbroken when she saw her grandson's ashes at Kaohsiung International Airport. Wu's uncle said Wu had faxed a suicide note to his parents, complaining about his extremely heavy workload, long working hours and his superiors' frequent fault-finding.
The uncle said the naval authorities should find out the cause of his suicide.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
Taiwan next year plans to launch its first nationwide census on elderly people living independently to identify the estimated 700,000 seniors to strengthen community-based healthcare and long-term care services, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said on the sidelines of a healthcare seminar that the nation’s rapidly aging population and declining birthrate have made the issue of elderly people living alone increasingly pressing. The survey, to be jointly conducted by the MOHW and the Ministry of the Interior, aims to establish baseline data and better allocate care resources, he
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