Talking points

Former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian will be transferred to the Taipei Veterans General Hospital a medical check-up. Local media, quoting a physician, reported that Chen is suffering from brain damage and could develop dementia within six months if he is not treated properly. Chen, Taiwan's president for eight years until May 2008, has been serving a term for corruption since September 2009.

Eight activists who joined last year's protest march on the North Point police station will hear their verdicts in Eastern Court, where they have been charged with unlawful assembly. The activists say the government has made prosecutions selectively because only eight of some 300 protesters were charged six months after the march marking the anniversary of the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen crackdown.