President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday visited the families of the four Chiayi construction workers washed away by floodwaters on Saturday and offered his apologies to the bereaved families in person.
Chen told the families that the government was at fault and would take full responsibility, promising the families compensation and to help take care of their livelihoods.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Chen offered an official apology for the government's failure to rescue the workers in time, amid criticism over what was called the government's incompetence.
Premier Tang Fei (
Instead, Vice Premier Yu Shyi-kun, who also headed the Cabinet's disaster prevention and rescue task force, resigned on Tuesday to take the blame.
National Police Administration Director-General Ting Yuan-chin (
Red tape and poor coordination between the air force and police has been blamed for the delayed dispatch of a rescue helicopter.
In addition, local fire-fighters were also blamed for not being able to implement effective measures to help the workers when they needed rescuing.
Continuing their pressure on the government, opposition lawmakers yesterday demanded that Vice Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (
"Many agencies were responsible for the incident, and the fire-fighting and air police forces that were responsible for much of the mismanagement are all under the Ministry of the Interior," said Tseng Yung-chuan (
Both Minister of the Interior Chang Po-ya (
The lawmakers, from the KMT, New Party and People First Party, said that since Chang was abroad when the tragedy took place, Lee should be the one to take political responsibility on behalf of the interior ministry.
In response, Chang said the fatal incident was being "over-politicized" by the opposition parties.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS