The Tai-Ex opened marginally down this morning from yesterday's close, at

23,014 on turnover of 7-billion N-T.

The market closed slightly lower on Tuesday as Taiwan Semiconductor

Manufacturing fell into negative territory and as investors are being

cautious ahead of the conclusion of this week's two-day policymaking meeting

of the U-S Federal Reserve.

Lawmakers have confirmed the appointment of Chou Hung-hsien and Hsu

Shu-hsiang as the new president and vice president of the Examination Yuan.

The appointments of six members of the Examination Yuan have also been

confirmed following a vote in the Legislative Yuan.

Chou is the incumbent Examination Yuan vice president, and was confirmed by a

vote of 59 to 53.

Chou has worked in public office for the past 16 years, serving in various

(各種各樣的) positions including in the Examination Yuan and the Executive

Yuan.

Supreme Prosecutors Office prosecutor Ker Li-ling is the only one of

President Lai Ching-te's seven nominees for the Examination Yuan not to have

been be confirmed by the Legislature.

The president, a vice president, and between seven and nine members of the

body responsible for administering (施行) national civil servant exams and

appointing, training and protecting the rights of civil service personnel are

appointed by the president to four-year terms.

The Centers for Disease Control is reporting a decline (減少) in the number

of enterovirus case being reported to health authorities.

According to the C-D-C, outpatient and emergency visits from between December

8 and 14 totaled 17,508 a decline of 21.4-per cent from the previous week.

However, C-D-C Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui is warning that that the

enterovirus epidemic remains at its highest level in a decade for this period

despite the decline in the number of weekly cases.

Health officials say monitoring over the past four weeks has found that the

coxsackie-virus A-16 strain was the most prevalent (流行) circulating here in

Taiwan.

And that was followed by the A-6, A-2, and enterovirus D-68 strains.

The suspect accused of (被指控) killing a top healthcare insurance official

has been charged with murder in New York

Luigi Mangione was indicted on 11 counts on Tuesday, including first-degree

murder and murder as an act of terrorism.

His lawyer says he plans to plead not guilty to the charges.

Sally Patterson has more.

Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson will not be extradited to Japan after being

freed from prison in Denmark, his lawyer said.

The Canadian-American citizen is now planning to return home to be reunited

with his family during the festive season after spending five months in

custody in Greenland.

Japan had asked Denmark to extradite Watson, who was arrested earlier this

year under a Japanese warrant.

The former head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whose high seas

confrontations with whaling vessels have drawn support from celebrities and

featured in a reality television series, said he is “quite relieved”

(鬆了口氣) to be free.

Watson's foundation said he faced a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison in

Japan, which does not have an extradition treaty with Denmark.

That was the I.C.R.T. EZ News, I'm _____.

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