■ Society
Hon Hai boss' wife dies
Lin Shu-ru, (林淑如), the wife of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) died at National Taiwan University Hospital on Saturday night of liver and lung failure after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 55. Lin had been battling breast cancer for three years. She made her last public appearance last July hand-in-hand with her husband at the wedding of their son Gou Shou-cheng (郭守正). Forbes magazine claims Terry Gou is the country's wealthiest man. He was ranked 170 on the magazine's list of the world's billionaires.
■ Politics
DPP seeking young experts
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said that the party will consider young law experts and academics as priority nominees for the National Assembly elections. Su said Yeh Chun-jung (葉俊榮), chairman of the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission and Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission Chairman Hsu Chih-hsiung (許志雄) will both be nominees. Both have specialized in law and constitutional study. Su also said that if the DPP's local party branch nominates him as a candidate, he would ask the party to put his name last on the list of nominees.
■ Cross-strait ties
Kinmen plans giant Guanyin
Kinmen wants to build a giant statue of Guanyin (Avalokitesvara in Sanskrit) to serve as an inspiration for peace across the Taiwan Strait. Residents yesterday elected Kinmen County Commissioner Lee Chu-feng (李炷烽) to chair a committee supervising the building and management of a 36m-high white stone statue of the bodhisattva. Residents envisage building the island into a mecca for Buddhists, which will also serve as a "torch of peace" for people across the Taiwan Strait, Lee said after attending the first meeting of the committee. Buddhists in Kinmen decided last June that the island should build the Guanyin using white stone from Quanzhou, Fujian Province, to make the statue a Kinmen landmark. In a very short period of time, nearly NT$18 million (US$580,000) million) was raised for the project. Participants at yesterday's meeting, however, failed to reach a consensus on where the statue should be established. At least four township chiefs lobbied for their towns to be chosen.
■ Cross-strait ties
Women stage protest
A group of women organized by the Non-war Action Alliance of Taiwan protested in front of the Legislative Yuan yesterday against Beijing's proposed "anti-secession" law. The demonstrators put up posters and chanted "no war" and "peace." Chou Shen-hsin (周聖心), convener of the alliance, said that almost all wars were initiated by men, and women -- who account for half of the global population -- were always the victims.
■ Tourism
Taipei expo promoted
A Taipei City mission, headed by Deputy Mayor Yeh Chin-chuan (葉金川), left for Toronto yesterday to promote the Taipei International Healthy City Expo 2005. City officials said that the delegation will head to to Indianapolis, Indiana and then Copenhagen, Denmark and Helsinki, Finland before returning home on Friday. The expo, which brought together the chiefs of 16 international cities in Taipei last year, is expected to attract 40 to 50 city chiefs from around the world this year, they said.
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
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