A US couple yesterday adopted a 16-month-old baby boy, named Marshall, who was abandoned at a shelter shortly after his mother, who was addicted to drugs, gave birth.
His mother is in prison. Authorities do not know who the father is.
The child was later placed in a shelter run by the Garden of Mercy Foundation, a local charity dedicated to limiting the spread of HIV and eliminating discrimination against those infected with the virus.
Praising the government for providing good medical care to babies, Joshua Bush, Marshall's foster father, said that "Marshall is special to us because he is now our son."
"We are grateful that God has chosen us as parents of Marshall," Bush said at the adoption ceremony.
He and his wife, Comfrey, are from Texas and already have a 10-year-old daughter and an eight-year-old son.
The family came in contact with Marshall through their weekend volunteer work with the charity, chairwoman of the foundation Chang Li-shu (
After six months of effort, including going through the adoption application process in both countries, the Bushes were finally allowed to adopt Marshall, Chang said.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
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