MEDIA
Tsai nominee on Time list
President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is among the 127 nominees for Time magazine’s annual list of “the 100 most influential people” for this year. As of Wednesday last week, Tsai was ranked within the top 30, garnering 1.2 percent of votes in an online poll by readers of the magazine, tied with US singer Beyonce and Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg. Tsai was ahead of German Chancellor Angela Merkel (1.1 percent), US Vice President Joe Biden (1 percent), Apple CEO Tim Cook (1 percent) and US Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton (0.9 percent). Leading the poll was US Senator Bernie Sanders, another Democratic presidential candidate, who has garnered 4.3 percent of votes. Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi (2.8 percent), South Korean boy band Big Bang (2.1 percent), US President Barack Obama (2 percent) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousufzai (1.9 percent) rounded out the top five. In sixth through 10th place were Pope Francis (1.7 percent), US singer Lady Gaga (1.7 percent), US first lady Michelle Obama (1.7 percent), US actor Leonardo DiCaprio (1.6 percent) and British actress Emma Watson (1.5 percent).
DIPLOMACY
Allies to attend inauguration
Leaders of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in the Pacific region are scheduled to attend the May 20 presidential inauguration, a foreign affairs official said yesterday. I-Kiribati President Taneti Maamau, Nauruan President Baron Waqa, Palauan President Tommy Remengesau, Tuvaluan Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga, Marshallese President Hilda Heine and Solomon Islands Governor-General Frank Kabui are to lead delegations to attend the ceremony, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director-General Elliot Charng (常以立) said at a regular news briefing. President-elect Tsai of the Democratic Progressive Party is to become Taiwan’s first female president when she is inaugurated, succeeding President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). The six countries are among Taiwan’s 22 diplomatic allies, half of which are in Central America and the Caribbean.
SECURITY
Tugboat crew kidnapped
Ten Indonesian crew members on board a Taiwanese-owned tugboat have been kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf militants in the Philippines, Philippine military officials said late on Monday. No Taiwanese nationals were on the ship, the officials said. The boat was hijacked on Sunday near the province of Tawi-Tawi in the southern Philippines on its way from Jakarta to Manila, the officials said, adding the crew were kidnapped and asked to call the boat’s owner in Taiwan to demand an undisclosed sum. According to sources, the Philippine military has located the boat at Port Languyan, Tawi-Tawi, and believes that the crew are being held captive on Basilan Island in the Sulu Archipelago, where Abu Sayyaf militants are active. Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Armanatha Nasir yesterday confirmed that the tugboat Brahma 12, flying an Indonesian flag, had been recovered by the Philippine government, but its 10 Indonesian crew members were still being held captive. Armanatha said his ministry did not know exactly where the crew members were and that the top priority at the moment is to ensure their safety. The kidnappers have indeed demanded a ransom, he said, citing information from the ship’s owner.
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
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
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
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