20120518 7pm

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7PM EZ News Intro

Good evening. It's 7 o'clock. I'm Rhys Mumford-Mears with EZ News on ICRT.

U.S. Congress to debate sale of F-16 fighters to Taiwan

First Taiwan news, The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to debate today and tomorrow a proposal to provide Taiwan with new F-16 fighter jets. The amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act would require the administration of President Barack Obama to sell at least 66 F-16 C/D fighters to Taiwan. Republican Phil Gingrey said that with China's 1,400 missiles targeting Taiwan and its new generation of military technologies, Washington should pay attention to whether Taiwan's military capabilities are sufficient to deal with the challenge.

Legislature rejects revision of presidential

Two motions were voted down in the Taiwan legislature today: one to revise the presidential recall act and the other to impose a ban on U.S. beef imports. Lawmakers voted 54-44 against a proposal to revise the presidential recall act, which states that a president who has not been in the position for a complete year cannot be recalled. The lawmakers also voted 51-44 against a proposal to stop beef imports from the United States following the latest outbreak of mad cow disease. Taiwan first banned U.S. beef imports in 2003 after a case of mad cow disease was reported in the state of Washington. In April 2005, Taiwan re-opened its market to imports of boneless U.S. beef from cattle under 30 months old, but imposed another ban in June 2005 when a second case of mad cow disease was reported in the US.

Chen Guangcheng

World news now and on the other side of the Taiwan strait... Rights lawyers say Chinese authorities have blocked them from representing the nephew of blind activist Chen Guangcheng. They say the government has assigned him two lawyers instead. Attorney Ding Xi Kui said police in Yinan county told him today that Chen Kegui, who is being held in a county detention center, asked for legal aid. Ding says he was then assigned two lawyers. Chen Ke-gui is accused of attempted homicide after he fought with officials who charged into his house searching for his uncle. Chen Guangcheng escaped house arrest last month, sought the protection of U.S. diplomats and is now in hospital awaiting permission to travel to the United States. He and his supporters fear his relatives are at risk of retribution from local officials angry at Chen's escape.

The Queen

In the UK, the Queen has come under fire for hosting a string of 'royal tyrants' to help her celebrate 60 years on the British throne. Human rights activists are up in arms over a visit to Windsor Castle by the King of Bahrain and Swaziland's King Mswati III- slamming the invitations as shameful. UK correspondent Nina-Maria Potts reports:

Facebook floating

As social networking site Facebook prepares to float in the US as a publicly traded company, there is a huge amount of hype surrounding the launch. The floatation of 18% of the company will net billions of dollars for founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and the early investors, not to mention the Wall Street firms who got in on the ground floor. But questions remain about the value of the firm for ordinary investors New York correspondent Nathan King has more.

Weather

Taiwan weather forecast for tomorrow according to the Central Weather Bureau, there are likely to be thundershowers island-wide tomorrow with highs north, center and south respectively: 27, 29 and 30 At the moment Taipei is 26, Taichung 24, Gauhsiung cloudy and 27.

7PM EZ News Outro

That's EZ News at 7. Thanks for listening, I'm Rhys Mumford-Mears