20120503 9am

9AM Intro

Good morning, it's 9 o'clock. I'm Bill Thissen

9AM TAIWAN NEWS ....

Taiwan and Japan are considering signing a tax agreement to avoid double taxation in an effort to further boost bilateral trade relations. According to Japanese lawmaker Yoichi Masuzoe. ... both sides are currently considering the possibility of signing a tax agreement -- one of the steps that will help pave the way for an eventual bilateral free trade pact. Masuzoe says he believes improving Taiwan-China ties will make it easier for Taiwan and Japan to conclude such a tax agreement. Talks of the proposed tax agreement comes a year after Taipei and Tokyo signed an investment pact. -------- Deputy Defense Minister Andrew Yang says the island needs advanced F-16 C/D jet fighters. The statement follows an apparent u-turn in Washington's stance on providing Taiwan with the advanced jet fighters. According to Yang ... if the U-S agrees to sell Taiwan the jets, the Air Force will ask for F-16 C/Ds with better equipment in order to enhance the island's air defense capability. However, K-M-T lawmaker Lin Yu-fang says he will continue to push for the purchase of F-35 jets from the U-S. ------- Lawmakers and local human rights groups are urging Beijing to improve conditions for Taiwanese nationals detained in China in light of efforts to improve conditions for Chinese detainees in Taiwan. The lawmakers and rights groups say they hope the improvement of conditions for detainees at an Yi-lan County detention facility, which houses mainly Chinese illegal immigrants, will result in Chinese authorities doing the same for Taiwanese detainees. ------- Police in Nantou County have arrested a group of illegal loggers. The loggers allegedly that sawed a burl from a sacred Taiwan red cypress tree in Zhu-shan Township in November of last year. The four men were detained by police and turned over to the Nantou District Prosecutors Office for violating the Forestry Act. The damaged tree is one of the country's oldest 30 trees.

denmark

Denmark's finance minister says she and her European Union counterparts are close to a deal to force banks to build up bigger capital cushions against financial shocks. The minister said this morning that only a few ``technical issues'' need to be ironed out before the ministers' next meeting in two weeks. The EU is in the process of writing an international agreement on capital defenses for banks into European law that regulators hope will prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. The deal would force lenders to increase their highest-quality capital gradually from 2 percent of the risky assets they hold to 7 percent by 2019. An additional 2.5 percent would have to be built up during good times.

china

It appears that a deal to let a Chinese activist live freely with his family in China, is unraveling. The APs Rita Foley reports.

obama

President Obama is back home from his whirlwind Afghanistan trip, leaving decidedly mixed messages in his wake. The AP's Mark Smith reports.

bird

Smokey the Bear has done such a good job stamping out U.S. forest fires the past half-century that a woodpecker that's survived for millions of years by eating beetle larvae in burned trees is in danger of going extinct in parts of the West. Conservationists seeking U.S. protection for the bird filed a petition with the U.S. Interior Department today to list the black-backed woodpecker under the Endangered Species Act in the Sierra Nevada, Oregon's Eastern Cascades and the Black Hills of eastern Wyoming and western South Dakota.

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/ highs of 28 to 29 degrees. Current Temperatures .... Taipei -- 23 Taichung -- 26 Gaoxiong -- 27

9AM Outro

That's the ICRT News at 9. I'm _____