■ Society
Man keeps mom's body
Police were stunned to discover that a man has lived with his dead mother for more than seven years in the belief that she would come back to life, it was reported yesterday. The man, surnamed Lin, told police that his mother died at his home in Tainan County in March 1999, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) and the television network TVBS reported. Lin, 55, said he was very sad about his mother's death and did not bury her because he firmly believed she would one day return to life. Lin had managed to preserve the body by draining the blood from it, the newspaper said, carrying a photograph. Lin said he recently stopped thinking his mother would be resurrected, prompting him to contact the police. "Initially I thought he said his mother died seven days ago. It's hard to believe," a police officer was seen as saying in a film clip broadcast by TVBS. The police are investigating the case.
■ Politics
Third recall fails to inspire
In preparation for tomorrow's vote, the legislature yesterday began a two-day review of the third recall motion against President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). The pan-greens largely ignored the review of this recall motion -- as they did the reviews of the two previous recall motions -- and Chen once again refused to submit a written rebuttal. Even pan-blue lawmakers, who initiated the third recall, were late for the review meeting. As a result the meeting, which was scheduled to begin at 9am, didn't get going until 9:50am because there were not enough legislators to constitute a quorum. The meeting was subsequently adjourned from 10am to noon and resumed in the afternoon.
■ Politics
Committee fines Cabinet
A special legislative committee fined the Executive Yuan yesterday for refusing to cooperate in its investigation into the March 19, 2004, shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), but the Cabinet refused to pay. The committee investigating "the truth" of the March 19, 2004, shooting said it was fining Cabinet departments and officials between NT$30,000 and NT$100,000 for boycotting the committee and for contempt of the legislature. Government Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) quoted a Council of Grand Justices interpretation as saying that the "319 Committee" was only an "internal organization" of the Legislative Yuan and that the Executive Yuan did not have any obligation to provide documents or allow its officials to be questioned.
■ Politics
Lee undergoes checkup
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) visited a hospital for a checkup yesterday after suffering from a high fever over the past couple of days. Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus whip Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙) confirmed that Lee went to the Taipei Veterans General Hospital after meeting TSU caucus leaders and the party's candidates for the year-end mayoral and city councilor elections at his residence in Taoyuan County. Yesterday's meeting was seen as a move to debunk speculation that Lee was unhappy with the TSU's about-face on the legislature's third attempt to recall President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Before the two-hour closed-door meeting, Lee made a public speech in which he criticized the Democratic Progressive Party and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for engaging in political strife.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
RSS