20120522 7pm

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7PM EZ News Intro

Good evening. It's 7 o'clock. I'm _____ and time for EZ News on ICRT.

Commerce chamber calls for economic stabilization

An economic group says the government should take action to stabilize the economy rather than pushing through reform policies, in light of a decline in Taiwan's exports. The country's exports in the first four months of this year fell 4.7 percent from the same period of last year to $96.37 billion US dollars. General Chamber of Commerce Chairman Lawrence Chang says that in that light, it is becoming more urgent for the government to deal with the slowing global economy. Speaking on the reforms that need to be postponed, Chang contends that now is not the right time for the government to push a capital gains tax on securities transactions. He said the government should wait until the Taiwanese people and companies become more stable in the face of the weak economy. (EG)

Jeremy Lin officially named to USA Select Team

Taiwanese-American New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin is one of 13 players who has been named to the USA Select Team. That's the team that will help prepare the United States' Olympic basketball team for the London Games. Lin's inclusion on the team had been widely reported in the United States in recent weeks but was only just confirmed by the NBA. It is widely believed that the players named to the Select Team have the inside track on representing the United States at the World Championships in 2014 and at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro. The NBA has said that the Select Team will report to Las Vegas July 5, and scrimmage with the national team from July 6 to 12. (EG)

UK

The skies above London are to be taken over by Britain's military, for the first time since 1945- as part of a massive security operation to help policing during this summer's Olympic Games. Nina-Maria Potts reports:

Myanmar

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will deliver her first speech outside the country since at least 1988 before a U.N. labor conference in Geneva next month. Suu Kyi's speech to the annual conference of the U.N.'s International Labor Organization will be a key element of her first trip abroad in over twenty years. After becoming leader of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement, Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest for 15 of the following 22 years of military rule. Suu Kyi also plans to visit Norway, where she will deliver her acceptance speech for the Nobel prize nearly 21 years after winning it. Norway's government said Suu Kyi will also meet the Prime Minister during her visit. She is also expected to visit Britain, where she got a college degree in philosophy and spent much of her married life raising two sons.

US

The Obama administration is inviting school districts to compete for $400 million dollars in grants, taking its Race to the Top education initiative to the classroom level. The administration is encouraging school districts to create plans designed to close achievement gaps and prepare students for college or careers. Race to the Top has already awarded billions to winning states to implement educational reforms the administration favors. The awards will range from $15 million to $25 million dollars for each winning district.

Malaria

A new study says that more than a third of the malaria-fighting drugs tested over the past decade in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa were either fake or bad quality, seriously undermining efforts to fight the disease. With up to 1 million people already dying every year from malaria, bogus drugs and those containing the wrong chemical makeup could upend a decade of progress fighting the mosquito-transmitted disease. The report says that international efforts to combat drug counterfeiting are urgently needed. Fake drugs with no malaria-fighting agents can lead to deaths when patients rely on them, and those containing some active ingredients _ but not enough to fully kill all parasites _ are also problematic because they promote resistant bacteria.

weather

Central weather bureau forecasters say it's going to be partly clear across much of Taiwan tonight, with lows tonight of 23 in the north and center, 26 in the south. Tomorrow, it'll stay mostly fair all across the island, with highs hitting 31 over all of Taiwan. Right now, it';s 25 in Taipei, 28 in Taizhong, and 29 in Gaoxiong.

7PM EZ News Outro

That's EZ News at 7. I'm _____