■ HEALTH
Cabinet mulling change
The Cabinet will reshuffle the members of a task force charged with designing a long-term care system for senior citizens next month to make sure that the system fits the administration’s plans, a Cabinet official said yesterday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity as she was not authorized to speak to the press, said that the sitting members of the task force appointed by the former Democratic Progressive Party government would leave their post when their one-year term expires in the middle of next month. The official added that several experts from the private sector who have been commissioned by the government have deliberated about 10 proposals, with a final proposal expected to be drafted in July at the earliest. She said the Cabinet would review and submit a proposal to the legislature by October.
■ GOVERNMENT
Hakka act in the works
The Council for Hakka Affairs has finished a draft of the long-planned Hakka Basic Act and will submit it to the Cabinet for review by the end of this month, council Minister Huang Yu-chen (黃玉振) told the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee yesterday. “Hopefully, the bill will be sent to the legislature for review before this legislative session ends [in June],” he told the meeting. Once it becomes law, the act will give semi-official status to the Hakka language in townships where Hakka are the majority, requiring 100 percent accessibility of the language in all public functions in specific regions. The council will also push for the establishment of Hakka translation services at all government offices and a nationwide Hakka radio station.
■ CRIME
Stickers discourage theft
The Kaohsiung City Police Bureau said yesterday it had created stickers with serial numbers for bicycles to discourage bicycle theft. Lin Chi-huang (林季璜), director of a police station in Kaohsiung, said bike owners can put the stickers on their bikes and then apply clear lacquer on the stickers so that thieves would not be able to remove the identification stickers. The bureau would file the personal information of the bike owners and the serial number of the bikes when they apply for the stickers, Lin said. The bureau will offer the stickers free along the city’s Love River next month, Lin said, adding that bike owners would only have to show their ID cards and proof of purchase.
■ LEISURE
Giant chief on bike tour
The chairman and co-founder of Giant Manufacturing Co, the world’s largest bicycle maker, said on Tuesday he would set off on May 9 for a cycling tour from Beijing to Shanghai. Making the announcement at the opening of the 2009 Taipei International Cycle Show at the Taipei World Trade Center’s Nangang Exhibition Hall, King Liu (劉金標) said he expected to complete the 1,688km trip in 20 days. “I am prepared,” he said at the trade show while displaying a limited edition carbon-fiber road bicycle he designed. However, Liu said that at the age of 75, it would be hard for him to ride the 80km per day needed to complete the journey in the alloted time. Liu completed a 927km ride around Taiwan in 17 days in 2007. He said he hoped that the personal challenge would help promote friendship and cycling exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV