As opposition lawmakers yesterday questioned first lady Wu Shu-chen over (
"The first lady's financial investments in the stock market are not the Cabinet's business and I don't see any illegal transaction there," Yu said during a question-and-answer session in the Legislative Yuan.
Earlier yesterday, People First Party (PFP) Legislator Hsieh Chang-chieh (謝章捷) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative whip Liao Fung-te (廖風德) accused Wu of profiting from insider tra-ding, with transactions in the stock market in January alone amounting to NT$30 million.
"Why doesn't President Chen Shui-bian (
At the question-and-answer session, KMT Legislator Liao Wan-ju (廖婉汝) said that Wu's transactions in the stock market in November and December totaled about NT$30 million. Liao said that in January Wu accumulated another NT$30 million from playing the stock market.
When asked whether his wife was involved in any stock transactions, Yu said that as far as he knew she was not involved in the stock market.
"Even if she has any stocks, they were inherited a long time ago," Yu said.
Meanwhile, in response to a pan-blue attack on the necessity of the election-day referendum, Yu said that the referendum was necessary despite a high public consensus over the two questions contained in the referendum.
"Switzerland and Hungary have held referendums with turnout rates of more than 90 percent," Yu said.
"The turnout rate of Mongolia's independence referendum in 1921 was 100 percent. Questioning the neccesity of the referendum doesn't make any sense," he said.
Yu yesterday also instructed the Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Justice to crack down on vote-buying and election gambling in response to a request from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Kuo Wen-chen (
Kuo said that gambling on the election outcome was rampant in southern Taiwan.
"It's a different way of vote-buying and there's someone manipulating things behind the scenes," he said. "Those afraid of losing the game would be motivated to persuade others to cast their ballots for the candidate they have bet on."
Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (
Yu also called on presidential-candidate supporters to exercise sportsmanship should their candidates lose the poll.
"We'd really hate to see the recurrence of the besieging of the KMT headquarters after KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) lost the presidential poll in 2000," Yu said, adding that the Cabinet would strengthen prevention measures to pre-empt such a scenario taking place.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
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