The Ministry of Justice yesterday said jailed former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was able to urinate on his own after a Foley catheter was removed, adding that his health condition did not qualify him for medical parole.
The ministry said Chen’s difficulty urinating had improved and that his prostatitis, an inflation of the prostrate gland, was being treated by antibiotics and infrared irradiation.
Considering Chen’s condition, he can be adequately cared for in prison or on temporary stays in hospitals, the ministry said, adding that he did not qualify for medical parole.
The ministry said granting Chen medical parole should not be based on politics, referring to calls by the former president’s supporters that he be released from Taipei Prison and criticism of the conclusions reached by specialists at Taoyuan General Hospital and Chang Guan Memorial Hospital in Linkou District (林口), New Taipei City (新北市) — two hospitals where Chen received medical checkups and treatment.
Chen, who is serving a 17-and-a-half-year sentence for corruption, was sent to Taoyuan General Hospital on Wednesday night after complaining of pain when urinating and was admitted for extensive examinations.
A group of Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers and medical experts on Friday said that a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test earlier that day had found that the former president has a 4mm-by-4mm trace of a cerebral vascular trauma in his right frontal lobe.
Chen’s family has said that according to doctors, people who have had a thrombotic stroke have a high chance of relapse within two to three years.
However, the ministry said that the MRI showed he has a 4mm clot in his right frontal lobe that was caused by brain ischemia — a type of stroke caused by insufficient blood flow to the brain — but it is unclear when the stroke occurred.
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
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
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