Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Freedom in Taiwan has regressed: DPP chairman

Taipei Times

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang speaks at an event in New Taipei City’s Chinshan District commemorating democracy activist Deng Nan-jung, who killed himself by self-immolation in his Taipei office in 1989 in protest against charges of sedition for his calls on the government to protect freedom expression.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said that freedom in Taiwan has regressed since “a repressive government” had returned to power.

Su made the remarks at a ceremony in honor of Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), the late democracy advocate who set himself on fire 24 years ago and died in defense of “100 percent freedom of expression.”

China mobilizes after fourth bird flu patient dies

Taipei Times

Technical staff from the animal disease prevention and control center inject chickens with the H5N1 bird flu vaccine in Shangsi county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region Wednesday.
Photo: Reuters.

China said it was mobilizing resources nationwide to combat a new strain of deadly bird flu that has killed four people, as Japan and Hong Kong stepped up vigilance against the virus and Vietnam banned imports of Chinese poultry.

The H7N9 bird flu strain does not appear to be transmitted from human to human, but authorities in Hong Kong yesterday raised a preliminary alert and said they were taking precautions at the airport.

N Korea gives embassy evacuation warning

Taipei Times

A truck moves past U.S. Army Patriot missile air defence artillery batteries at U.S. Osan air base in Osan, south of Seoul. North Korea has placed two of its intermediate range missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them on the east coast of the country in a move that could threaten Japan or U.S. Pacific bases, South Korean media reported yesterday.
Photo: Reuters

North Korea told Russia yesterday to consider evacuating its embassy in Pyongyang, as reports suggesting the North was preparing an imminent missile launch prompted a fresh spike in global concern.

An embassy spokesman told Russian news agencies that the North Korean foreign ministry had suggested they “examine the question of evacuating employees” from the mission.

Freedom to choose national identity

Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Performance issues cannot avoid matters of the economy, yet Lee avoided direct reference to Taiwan’s lagging economy — a failed promised arena of Ma with his opening to China.

Although Ma’s performance ratings have consistently been at an all-time low since his re-election, and his “6-3-3” economic campaign pledge is its own specter lingering in the wings, Lee still avoided mentioning it.

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