Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興), of the Democratic Progressive Party, yesterday said that the local media had distorted his remarks when they reported that he supported caning as a punishment in schools.
Caning, in which a person is lashed by a flexible rattan cane, is employed in Singapore to discipline law-breakers.
The FTV news channel reported that Yang suggested caning as a punishment during a meeting with elementary and junior high school presidents on Monday about campus safety. He made the suggestion after a president complained about juvenile delinquents trespassing and threatening their peers, it said.
A number of civil groups expressed anger and "disbelief" about the reported comments and accused the county government of "going backward."
Yang yesterday said that after hearing the school presidents' complaints at the meeting he had asked them if they thought caning would be a good punishment.
Half of them had raised their hands when he asked if they would favor the punishment, while only one person raised his hand half-way when he asked if they opposed it, Yang said.
"It was merely a quick poll, while caning itself pertains to the judicial arena. The media was mistaken," he was quoted as saying yesterday.
Legislative caucuses agreed last Friday to amend the Educational Basic Law (
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
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