Former judge and New Party legislator Hsieh Chi-ta (
"To me, [being in jail] was more like sitting doing Zen meditation," Hsieh said as she was received by friends, relatives and supporters following her release.
PHOTO: LIAO CHENG-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Hsieh was sentenced on Dec. 21 last year in a defamation case brought by Tseng Wen-hui (
Hsieh, Feng and Tai had claimed that Tseng attempted to flee to New York after the 2000 presidential election with US$85 million in her luggage but was turned back by customs officials.
Opting to go to jail instead of paying an NT$81,000 fine, Hsieh was unrepentant about her behavior and said that her three-month jail term was "worthwhile."
"I don't mind serving the three-month jail term, because I think it is very worthwhile to have served out a sentence after pulling down the individual who has greatly harmed the country and the KMT [Chinese Nationalist Party]," Hsieh said, referring to Lee.
In March 2000, after the KMT lost the presidential election to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Hsieh was among angry protesters who demonstrated outside KMT headquarters in Taipei.
They were demanding that Lee, who was chairman of the KMT at the time, step down from his post immediately.
While saying that she had no desire to run in the next legislative election, Hsieh said that as long as they needed her, she would go out of her way to boost the campaigns of candidates in the KMT and the People First Party.
Meanwhile, Li Ao (
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
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