20120510 10am

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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 higher this morning from yesterday's close - opening up 5 points at 7,480 on turnover of 1.648-billion N-T dollars. ------------- Fifteen people suffered minor injuries yesterday -- when a bus carrying a tour group from South Korea overturned in the Taroko National Park. None of the 13 tourists, the tour guide or the driver was severely injured. Police say an initial investigation in to the accident found the tour bus driver was at fault and he did not have a license to drive large passenger buses. The license held by the 59-year-old driver was for trucks - and police he was unfamiliar with the vehicle he was driving. Both the driver and tour bus company face fines of 40-thousand N-T dollars. ---------- Civic groups are calling on lawmakers to back a preliminary decision by a legislative committee to maintain a ban on imports of U-S beef containing the leanness-enhancing drug - ractopamine. Members of various civic groups rallied outside the Legislative Yuan yesterday --- holding up placards bearing the photographs and telephone numbers of lawmakers prepared to allow the imports. According to the head of the Homemakers' Union and Foundation .... the public should call these lawmakers and encourage them to back public sentiment on the issue. --------- Lawmakers have passed a proposal calling on President Ma Ying-jeou to consider inspecting Taiwan-controlled islands in the South China Sea. Lawmakers say such a move would assert the island's sovereignty over the area amid growing tensions in the disputed region. The proposal say the Ministry of National Defense should recommend Ma "consider visiting Taiping Island and Dongsha Island at an appropriate time" as part of efforts to safeguard Taiwan's territory. Recent tensions in the region include an ongoing standoff between China and the Philippines that erupted in early April over the Scarborough Shoal.

obama

US President Barack Obama's announcement yesterday that he supports gay marriage boosted the hopes of gay rights groups around the world that other leaders will follow his example. Vatican and other religious officials who oppose gay marriage stayed largely silent, while others denounced the president's position. Gay groups lauded what they said was the tremendous precedent set by Obama and hoped for changes in their own countries. In Latin America, for example, governments in Argentina and Mexico City have passed laws permitting gay marriage, but most do not. That message was echoed by some people in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, who said it was about time Obama took a positive stand on the issue. Even as religious officials didn't comment, political leaders and others opposed to gay marriage were not shy about denouncing what they said was a shameless appeal by Obama for votes.

syria

An explosion hit a Syrian military truck escorting a convoy of United Nations observers near the city of Deraa yesterday. The head of the U-N team was in the convoy, but neither he nor any of the other monitors was hurt. The observers are in the country as part of the joint U-N-Arab League peace plan and began deploying last month.

plane

Search and rescue teams are scouring the slopes of a dormant volcano in western Indonesia today for signs of a new Russian-made passenger plane. The plane dropped off the radar while on a demonstration flight with fifty people were on board, including potential buyers, diplomats and journalists. Helicopters were earlier forced to abort an aerial survey because of bad weather. The plane was Russia's first new passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago ... and has been widely considered the country's chance to regain a foothold in the international passenger plane market.

hacking

British police suspected more than 10 years ago that a missing schoolgirl's phone had been hacked by people associated with Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid. The AP's Charles de Ledesma reports. Meanwhile ... UK Prime Minister David Cameron's relationship with Rupert Murdoch is under fresh scrutiny as two former News of the World editors prepare to testify before the UK's Leveson inquiry into press ethics. Editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson are expected to make embarrassing revelations about how far British politicians would go to woo Rupert Murdoch's UK newspapers

WEATHER AM ...

cloudy skies, rain and possible afternoon thunder showers islandwide -- w/ a high of 24 in the north a high of 28 in the center a high of 30 in the south Current Temperatures ... Taipei -- 24 Taichung -- 29 Gaoxiong -- 30

10AM EZ News Outro

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