20120503 10am

10AM EZ News Intro

Good morning. It's 10 o'clock. I'm _______ and time for EZ News on ICRT.

10AM TAIWAN NEWS ....

The Tai-Ex opened slightly lower this morning from yesterday's close -- opening down 9.3 points at 7,668 on turnover of 2.908-billion N-T dollars. ------------ Parts of New Taipei suffered flooding yesterday ... following heavy late afternoon rains. Flooding was reported in Dan-shui, Ba-li, Wu Gu and San Zhi. The Central Weather Bureau has warned that this year's plum rains may be heavier than previous years and could persist through late June. ----------- Lawmakers are calling on the government to delay the first stage of planned three-stage electricity rate increase -- saying it should be postponed until after the summer peak usage period. President Ma Ying-jeou announced the government's revised policy Tuesday in a televised address. Under that plan, the government will implement electricity rate hikes in three stages, beginning June 10th. However, lawmakers from across party lines have expressed concern that consumers could face two consecutive rounds of inflation in a short period --- as the first-stage hike falls in the same month as the regular summer increase. The government has said the government chose to implement the first hike in June because state generator -- Taipower -- will need time to process the adjustment ... and because the policy can only take effect one month after the announcement. ------------- The Military Police Command says one of its soldiers guarding the Presidential Office shot himself outside the building earlier this morning. Although an investigation into the shooting incident is underway ... a military police spokesperson says his office believes the un-named conscript committed suicide. According to sources the soldier was suffering from emotional problems. Police were alerted to the shooting at just after 3 o'clock this morning. The soldier was rushed to the near-by National Taiwan University Hospital -- where he was declared dead due to chest injuries.

dissident

Annual talks between the United States and China are underway amid controversy over a blind Chinese dissident who appealed to Washington for help. Chen Guang-cheng said he now fears for his family's safety unless they are all taken out of China. Chen escaped house arrest and entered the U.S. Embassy, where he remained for six days. He only left the compound's protective confines yesterday for a nearby hospital for treatment of a leg injury he suffered during his escape. Chen also said Chinese authorities had warned he would lose his opportunity to be reunited with his family if he stayed longer in the embassy. Chen's case could overshadow talks in which U-S Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are to discuss foreign policy and economic issues with their Chinese counterparts. Chen became an international human rights figure and inspiration to many ordinary Chinese after exposing forced abortions carried out as part of China's one-child policy. He served four years in prison on what supporters said were fabricated charges, then was kept under house arrest with his wife, daughter and mother, with the adults often being roughed up by officials and his daughter searched and harassed.

suu kyi

Aung san Suu Kyi has taken up her seat in Mynmar's parliament. Nathan King reports.

harley

Japanese media say a Harley-Davidson motorcycle lost in last year's tsunami has washed up on a Canadian island about 6,400 kilometers away. The rusted bike was found in a large white container where its owner, Ikuo Yokoyama, had kept it. He was located through the license plate number. Yokoyama lost three members of his family in the March 11 tsunami last year, and is now living in temporary housing in Miyagi prefecture. Debris from the tsunami initially gathered in the ocean off Japan's northeastern coast and has since spread out across the Pacific. Last month, a U.S. Coast Guard sank a fishing boat in the Gulf of Alaska that had drifted from Japan after the disaster. Authorities said ship posed a hazard to shipping and to the coastline. In March, an Alaska man found a football and later a volleyball from Japan; their owners were located last week using names that had been inscribed onto them.

WEATHER AM .....

cloudy skies and rain in the north w/ a high of 25 in the Taipei area cloudy skies w/ possible thundershowers in the center and south w/ a high of 28 in the center and a high of 29 down south Current Temperatures .... Taipei -- 24 Taichung -- 28 Gaoxiong -- 27

10AM EZ News Outro

That's EZ News at 10. I'm _____