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Saturday, December 13, 2008

Taiwan’s former President, Chen Shui-bian (???), has been conditionally released on bail, some ten hours after he was indicted for corruption. Speaking to media at the Taipei District Court, he said: “I want to thank my lawyers, members of the Democratic Progressive Party and my supporters who have given me huge encouragement. I am grateful to those who cared for, supported and looked after me so I could get through the hardest and loneliest 32 days of my life in prison.” He earns the historical distinction of being the first ex-president of the Republic of China to be indicted for criminal offenses and could suffer life imprisonment if convicted.

Along with 13 other family members and close associates, including his wheelchair-bound wife, son Chen Chih-Chung, and daughter-in-law Huang Jui-ching, Chen was indicted Friday on charges of embezzling government funds and laundering money or ill-gotten bribes. The panel of three judges ruled he should appear at future court hearings and must not leave the country nor change his address.

Prosecutor Lin Che-hui accused Chen of having “embezzled 104 million New Taiwan dollars ($3.12 million) from a special presidential fund, and received bribes of $11.73 million in connection with a government land procurement deal and a separate construction project; the damning piece of evidence was the presence of NT$740 million ($22.2 million) in cash stashed in a Taipei bank safety vault held by the Chens.” Yuanta Securities director Tu Li-ping said, “she hand delivered NT$200 million ($6 million) in cash to Wu at the presidential residence in 2006 on behalf of executives of an affiliated bank; the money was an incentive for Wu not to interfere with a merger the bank was pursuing.”

Chen insists on his innocence. Contradicting the 100-page indictment, he said that “the $21 million his wife wired to their son’s Swiss bank accounts came from leftover campaign donations. Taiwanese law permits such donations to be kept by political candidates.”

In 1975, Chen married Wu Shu-chen (???), the daughter of a physician. The couple has a daughter, Chen Hsing-yu (???), who is a dentist; and a son, Chen Chih-Chung (???), who, having received a law degree in Taiwan, studied at and graduated with a M.A. degree from the University of California in 2005.

In November 2006, Chen’s wife Wu Shu-chen and three other high ranking officials of the Presidential Office were indicted for corruption, charged with misappropriating NT$14.8 million (USD$450,000) of government funds using falsified documents. Due to the protection from the Constitution against prosecution of the sitting president, Chen could not be prosecuted until he left office, and he was not indicted, but was alleged to be an accomplice on his wife’s indictment.

Chen’s term as President of the Republic of China ended in May 2008. Immediately thereafter, prosecutors began investigating him regarding allegations that he misused his discretionary “state affairs fund”, as well as his connection to the first family’s money-laundering activities. He resigned from the Democratic Progressive Party on August 15, 2008, one day after admitting to falsifying past campaign expenses and wiring campaign contributions to overseas accounts.

In November 2008, Chen was escorted by a security staff, into the Taipei prosecutor’s office for questioning. After 6 hours, he left the Supreme Court prosecutor`s office in handcuffs, was arrested and detained. The charges each carry a minimum penalty of 5 years imprisonment. Following a 6 day hunger strike while in detention, Chen collapsed and was rushed to Taipei’s Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, where he was later transferred to Panchiao Hospital for force-feeding. Despite Chen’s lack of interest in appealing, his lawyer Cheng Wen-long completed a motion seeking his release from detention and filed a notice of appeal of the court’s decision, along with a petition for constitutional interpretation to restrain actions violative of the Constitution.

Prosecutor General, Chen Tsung-ming said that after Chen’s case had been removed to the Taipei Local Court, he would re-file a petition for Chen’s detention. Chen and the main opposition DPP have accused President Ma Ying-jeou‘s administration of “using the scandals to plan a political plot against the former leader.”

Meanwhile, The Straits Times reported that “prosecutors are to investigate former President of the Republic of China and Chairman of the Kuomintang from 1988 to 2000, Lee Teng-hui on suspicion of money laundering, based on allegations made by Chen during his own questioning recently that his predecessor transferred large funds abroad through dummy accounts.” Mr. Lee angrily denied the accusations concerning “a suspected transfer of 50 million Taiwan dollars (US$2.26 million) to Mr Lee from a local stock investor via overseas dummy accounts.” Charges also included transactions made at the end of Lee’s tenure and at the beginning of Chen’s term, including “one billion Taiwan dollars that had been wired to various countries including Singapore.”

The China Post calls for calm and urges fair trial for Chen. “All the people should wait patiently for the outcome of the trial … They shouldn’t do anything to influence the judges in any way, because the rule of law in Taiwan is at stake. We should show the world that Taiwan is a democracy where anybody who commits a crime, be he a man on the street or a former president, is duly punished.” it said.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Matthew Higa, 23, has been arrested in connection with the death of a 23-month-old boy. Higa is alleged to have thrown the child from a pedestrian overpass into oncoming traffic on Honolulu’s H-1 Freeway.

The local coroner’s office noted that the child died on impact after falling 30 feet (9 meters) from the overpass. This occurred during Thursday’s lunch rush hour in the heart of downtown. Upon impact, several cars struck the child, which caused traffic to grind to a halt.

The toddler, Cyrus Nainoa Tupa?i Belt, was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:07 p.m. (2207 UTC), approximately 27 minutes after being allegedly being ejected from the overpass by Higa. The portion of H-1 was closed for approximately five hours with traffic diverted to side streets. The freeway was reopened in time for the evening commute.

At first the relationship between Higa and the child was unclear, but later reports stated that Higa lived adjacent to him and had babysat him on previous occasions. The boy’s mother was out of town at the time of his death, but it was revealed that the child was supposed to be in the custody of his father and not with Higa.

Higa graduated from Roosevelt High School in 2003. In the summer of 2004 Higa was involved in an incident where police reports indicate a three-car race resulted in the death of a friend. Higa has since had a criminal history, with more than a dozen arrests but no convictions, and reports from neighbors of erratic behavior.

Queen’s Medical Center, which houses a psychiatric ward in Honolulu, noted that he was a patient there as recently as December 11, 2007. When arrested, Higa was wearing hospital scrubs, which were not immediately conducive to whether Higa was a patient in Queen’s psychiatric wing in the last couple of days. A representative of Queen’s declined to comment on whether Higa was admitted in the last week.

Friday, September 26, 2008

On October 14, 2008, Canadians will be heading to the polls for the federal election. New Democratic Party candidate Don Davies is standing for election in the riding of Vancouver Kingsway.

A lawyer, he has spent the last 25 years fighting for human rights. A two-time student government representative, Davies was involved in the anti-apartheid, third world and peace movements. Admitted to the Alberta Bar in 1989, Davies and family moved to Vancouver in 1991, where he became the Director of Legal Resources for Teamsters Canada (Local 31), the next year. He is a long-time volunteer for children’s charity Variety, is Chair of the Parent Advisory Council at Mount Pleasant school, and a Director of the Meridian Cultural Society, among other things.

Wikinews contacted Don Davies, to talk about the issues facing Canadians, and what they and their party would do to address them. Wikinews is in the process of contacting every candidate, in every riding across the country, no matter their political stripe. All interviews are conducted over e-mail, and interviews are published unedited, allowing candidates to impart their full message to our readers, uninterrupted.

The riding is vacant, after Conservative Minister of International Trade David Emerson’s resignation. Emerson was elected in 2004 as a Liberal, serving as the Minister of Industry. Two weeks after re-election in 2006, he crossed the floor to join then-new Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who had won a minority government. Emerson was the first MP in Canadian history to cross the floor before a new government was sworn in. He has stepped down, after pressure from other parties.

Besides Davies, major party candidates include Liberal Wendy Yuan, Conservative Salomon Rayek, and Green Doug Warkentin. Also putting their hat in the ring are Matt Kadioglu (Libertarian), Kimball Cariou (Communist), and Donna Peterson (Marxist-Leninist).

For more information, visit the campaign’s official website, listed below.

This Saturday at 11 am, Davies will host NDP leader Jack Layton in the Commodore Ballroom at “rally4change”.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Back in 2003, inspectors had discovered several sites in Iran that tested positive for highly enriched uranium, but the uranium was believed to have come from equipment that was previously from Pakistan.

On Friday, Reuters published a report quoting UN diplomats from Vienna who wish to remain anonymous alleging that preliminary analysis of microscopic dust collected from equipment at the now razed Lavizan-Shiyan research center in Iran in January of 2005, contained traces of “highly enriched uranium”. “It’s no smoking gun. There could be many explanations. But it increases pressure on Iran to come clean about Lavizan,” Reuters reported the European diplomat as stating.

According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the IAEA, said today that the finding of the highly enriched uranium is “of little significance at the current juncture.” ElBaradei also pointed out that the investigation into where it came from is continuing and that the uranium could have come from equipment that was imported to Iran, but that “time is still needed to reach a conclusion in this respect.”

ElBaradei also highlighted that he is aware of the right for Iran to use nuclear material for “peaceful purposes” and that “a balance between Iran’s nuclear rights and concerns of the international community would not be created through verbal disputes, but rather dialogue would be the solution.”

Speaking on Friday about the allegation, former UN weapons inspector and former head of the Institute for Science and International Security, David Albright said, “even if it is the same contamination, this is a significant finding because it indicates something was going on at Lavizan. It could be part of Iran’s known centrifuge program or a parallel program.”

In response, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi asserted, “these comments lack any importance and do not come from a real source.” Denying that his country had carried out any work at the Lavizan-Shiyan facility, Asefi added that the UN claims were “baseless and without importance.”

On Friday Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad responded to the UN allegations saying, “they are trying to frighten our country by waging a propaganda campaign using strong words. The people of Iran and the country are not afraid of them” and that “this whole thing is just psychological propaganda, but they know the Islamic republic nation of Iran is a strong nation. I think they have better sense than to have a war with Iran. Every country has the right to defend its right in accordance with the agreed way.”

Iran started to enrich uranium at its Natanz nuclear facility April 11, and continues to claim its program is for peaceful purposes.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Fifteen years after the Winnipeg Jets left the province of Manitoba, Canada, an announcement on Tuesday made official what ice hockey fans have been anticipating: The National Hockey League’s (NHL) Atlanta Thrashers are moving to Winnipeg. The Thrashers, who have been a target for relocation rumors amid the ownership struggles and financial losses, will leave Atlanta after eleven seasons there in the highest-level professional ice hockey league in North America. The deal, which was finalized early in the morning Tuesday, has just one step to climb: a vote by the NHL’s Board of Governors, which will take up the matter at their June 21 meeting.

Atlanta Spirit Group, LLC. (ASG), who owned the Thrashers—and continues to own both the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association, as well as Philips Arena, the arena both teams occupied—completed the sale to Winnipeg investor group True North Sports & Entertainment Ltd. The Thrashers will move into their new home arena, MTS Centre in Winnipeg. ASG has also been trying to find buyers for the Atlanta Hawks as well as Philips Arena. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who also presided over the league when the Jets left Winnipeg in 1996, has stated the Thrashers will remain in the Southeast Division for at least the 2011-12 season, after which time the NHL is expected to shuffle teams between the Western and Eastern conferences to move the Thrashers to the West, to play with other teams in western North America. The two teams situated in the Western Conference which reside in the Eastern Time Zone, the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets, as well as the Nashville Predators are considered favorites to be moved into the Eastern Conference when this happens.

The city of Winnipeg, which has been ready and waiting for an NHL franchise since the Jets relocated to Glendale, Arizona and became the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996, is already host to a team in the second-tier American Hockey League, the Manitoba Moose. During the announcement Tuesday, True North stated that they were starting a season ticket drive. They also announced that they have yet to choose a name for the new team.

The Thrashers are not the first franchise that True North has set its sights on in regards to acquiring an NHL team. The Coyotes, which have been owned by the league since the previous owners filed for bankruptcy in 2009, was highly sought-after by True North in the past few years in an attempt to literally “return the Jets to Winnipeg”. In early May, the Glendale City Council approved a measure to pay $25 million to the league, to cover their operating expenses for the next year in order to keep the team in the city.

This is not the first time an NHL franchise has been relocated north of the border from the #8-ranked media market in the United States; in 1980, the Atlanta Flames moved to Calgary, Alberta, becoming the Calgary Flames. Atlanta was later granted an expansion franchise in 1997, and the Thrashers took the ice to start the 1999-00 NHL season. In the 11 seasons the Thrashers spent in Atlanta, they made the playoffs only once; in the 2006-07 season, they reached the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, where they were swept in the best-of-seven series by the New York Rangers in four straight games.

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

A man invaded the home of Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco, California, early Friday morning and assaulted her husband, Paul Pelosi.

David Wayne DePape, 42, is suspected to have infiltrated their residence in Pacific Heights and repeatedly shouted, “Where is Nancy?” whilst the Speaker was in Washington, D.C. Paul Pelosi is reported to have called 9-1-1 from the bathroom at about 2 AM. In a press conference on the day of the attack, San Francisco police chief William Scott confirmed a dispatcher heard DePape making threats, and officers arrived at about 2:30 AM to both men holding a hammer (which DePape had brought).

Scott reported: “The suspect pulled the hammer away from Mr. Pelosi and violently assaulted him with it. Our officers immediately tackled the suspect, disarmed him, took him into custody, requested emergency backup and rendered medical aid.”

Pelosi was taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and received surgery for a fractured skull and “serious injuries to his right arm and hands” but is expected to fully recover, according to the Speaker’s spokesperson, Drew Hammill.

Hammill continued, “The Speaker and her family are thankful for the outpouring of support and prayers from friends, constituents and people around the country. The Pelosi family is immensely grateful to Mr. Pelosi’s entire medical team and the law enforcement officers who responded to the assault. The family appreciates respect for their privacy during this time.”

DePape, too, was taken to a hospital before being booked at the San Francisco County Jail.

The United States Capitol Police deployed agents to aid state and local authorities in their investigation.

US Representative Madeleine Dean, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, “Everyone is shaken. It’s absolutely chilling. You can be against me for what I stand for. But the vitriol to the point of spurring violence is so unacceptable.”

Dean has been the subject of threats of violence after serving as an impeachment manager during the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump; consequently, she has purchased a bulletproof vest. She added, “Who thought I was going to walk into service and need one of those?”

US Representative and Republican Whip Steve Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana, who was himself shot by a “domestic violent extremist” in 2017, said that the attack on Pelosi “disgusted” him, and that he had called the Speaker.

US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said in Pennsylvania Friday evening the assault was “despicable” and that Americans should “stand up clearly and unambiguously” in opposition to political bloodshed.

Meanwhile Governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, told supporters in a campaign speech, “Speaker Pelosi’s husband had a break in last night in their house and he was assaulted. There’s no room for violence anywhere. But we’re gonna send her back to be with him in California. That’s what we’re gonna go do.”

He was rebuked for the comments by Virginia Democrats as “shameful”, “a failure of leadership”, and a “taunt…because he disagrees with her [Pelosi’s] politics”.

Prosecutors allege that the assault was politically motivated, intended as retribution for the Speaker’s “performance of her official duties”. DePape had informed the police that he had intended to take her hostage and question her; if she “told the truth” he would release her, and if she “lied”, DePape would break her kneecaps.

On Monday, federal prosecutors charged DePape with assault on a family member of a U.S. official and attempted kidnapping of a U.S. official, while state prosecutors separately filed charges including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, elder abuse, and threatening a public official. The maximum combined sentences for the federal charges would be 50 years’ imprisonment, while the state charges’ combined would be 13 years to life in prison.

DePape was arraigned for the state charges in the San Francisco County Superior Court Tuesday, pleading not guilty on all. The judge directed his continued jailing without bail and imposed a restraining order preventing him from approaching the Pelosi family or their home or communicating with them.

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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

An unnamed Polish man, 35, is being treated at a hospital in London, England after he cut off his penis with a knife at Zizzi’s pizza restaurant on Strand Street in the city of Westminster.

“We were called at 9.00 p.m. on Sunday to a restaurant on the Strand to reports of a man in possession of a knife. Officers attended to discover a man believed to be 30-40 years old suffering from an injury. He was taken to a south London hospital in a stable condition. No one else was injured and his injuries are believed to be self inflicted,” said a Scotland Yard spokesperson.

Police had to use CS tear gas on the victim in order to subdue him to get him to the hospital to receive medical attention.

Witnesses say that the man came into the restaurant, picked a knife up off the floor of the kitchen and then got onto a table and cut off his penis.

“At around 9 p.m. on Sunday, a man walked into the Zizzi restaurant on The Strand, down the stairs to the basement restaurant area and tried to enter a kitchen. Members of staff stopped him, at which he ran into a second kitchen area. The man then picked up a kitchen knife and slashed himself across the wrist and groin areas before running back into the restaurant, where he continued to stab himself,” said a spokesperson for the restaurant.

Surgeons are attempting to reattach his organ in what doctors call the first time this kind of surgery has been performed in the UK. It is not yet known if the operation was successful.

“If it doesn’t take, then you would have to re-amputate it. Attaching the penis is a very long, complex and painstaking operation,” said Francis Chinegwundoh, a urologist at St Bartholomew’s Hospital which is located in London. Chinegwundoh also said that that the victim will not feel his penis and it will not be possible for him to maintain an erection unless he uses a special machine, even if the operation were a success.