Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Hung-mao (
"We offered assistance, including funding," Tien said yesterday. "It's not true that any financial support is lacking."
Tien made the remarks yesterday in response to questions from reporters after meeting with former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias Sanchez at the ministry.
Lu has criticized the ministry for failing to assist her with the forum.
The dispute has added tension to already strained ties between the ministry and the vice president's office.
Local media have also quoted Lu as saying that she has started to solicit financial support from the private sector after realizing the foreign ministry would be unhelpful to her efforts.
The forum, called the "2001 Global Peace Assembly -- Voice from Taiwan: Peace and Love," is scheduled to be held tomorrow and Thursday.
Oscar Arias Sanchez is one of the five Nobel Peace Prize winners invited to the forum. The other four are former Polish president Lech Walesa, former South African president Frederik W. de Klerk, anti-landmine activist Jody Williams and British anti-nuclear activist Dr. Joseph Rotblat.
Northern Ireland peace movement activist Betty Williams has canceled her trip to Taiwan at the last minute because of an illness, organizers said.
Aside from the five Nobel peace laureates, the meeting is expected to attract about 60 foreign parliamentarians, peace activists and Taipei-based diplomats, as well as local and foreign scholars.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique