SOCIETY
Centennial mascot chosen
Wearing a pair of large, red glasses and a scarf patterned after the Republic of China’s (ROC) national flag, a white “Shining Baby.ROC” was selected yesterday as the mascot that will be featured in a series of activities celebrating the ROC’s 100th anniversary next year. Lee Kai-an (李鎧安), who designed Shining Baby.ROC, said the sun in the national flag inspired him to design the mascot in a way that tells the story of the ROC fighting for freedom and democracy and achieving a great deal over the past 100 years. He hoped that the ROC would continue to develop in an open and multicultural spirit in the next century, symbolized by the shafts of light above the head of the mascot. Shining Baby.com will be unveiled to the public during a national flag-raising ceremony on Saturday. Council for Cultural Affairs Minister Emile Sheng (盛治仁) said Lee’s work was chosen from among more than 2,500 submissions in a design contest held over the past two-and-a-half months. Many of the entries were quite original and meaningful, with features such as Formosan black bears, blue magpies or monkeys, the pattern of the plum flower or the national flag (blue sky, white sun and crimson background), Sheng said.
CRIME
Man allegedly kills wife
An elderly man allegedly ended his ailing wife’s life by pushing a screwdriver through her skull, weeks after he said on his blog he might kill her as an act of mercy, media report said yesterday. Wang Ching-hsi (王敬熙), an 83-year-old former engineer, is suspected of giving his wife sleeping pills early on Sunday and then killing her, the Chinese-language United Daily News and other papers said. “Why I did this? It’s all on my blog,” Wang told journalists while being taken away by Taipei police, TV footage showed. A blog entry dated Dec. 5 that appeared to be Wang’s remained available yesterday and detailed in candid terms how his 80-year-old wife had lost the will to live. The blog entry said that she was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and had recently broken her left leg. “She is miserable,” the blog said. It referred to an agreement the couple had arrived at a decade ago “to die in peace” and quoted Wang as telling his wife: “When the time comes, I will kill you.” After allegedly killing his wife, Wang called police to turn himself in and waited in his apartment for the officers to arrive, the United Daily News said. Euthanasia and the right to die has been a hotly debated topic in recent years. In June, the Cabinet passed draft regulations allowing terminally ill patients or their relatives to give up medical treatment that prolongs suffering without preventing eventual death.
POLITICS
KMT recruitment draws 300
The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) first employee recruitment drive in nearly 10 years attracted more than 300 people as part of the party’s attempts to reshape itself, an official said over the weekend. More than 300 college graduates and advanced degree holders have signed up for a recruitment exam scheduled for Sunday, said Lin Yung-juei (林永瑞), chief of the KMT administration committee. The party has stepped up its efforts to seek new blood after its narrow victory in last month’s five special municipality elections prompted a KMT reshuffle of branch and headquarters department chiefs. The 20 people hired through the recruitment drive will have to complete training and pass various tests before being deployed at different branches nationwide, Lin said.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
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