Over the past week, people in Taiwan have become acustomed to associating Ketagalan Boulevard with political controversy.
With the peaceful conclusion of Saturday's rally, many people hoped that such open displays of contention had come to an end. They hadn't considered that the Taipei City Government and the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) would each claim responsibility for successfully dispersing the remaining pan-blue supporters, thus sparking an administrative feud for bragging rights.
Since Saturday night, Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (
According to Chinese-language media reports, such operations involve officials from nearly every level of government, from the Presidential Office down to local police units. On Saturday night, Tsai was in charge of making "progress reports" while Yu was responsible for making "administrative system reports."
It was not immediately clear how the two types of reports differ.
Furthermore, Yu stayed at Ketagalan Boulevard until 5:30am yesterday, when the dispersion was completed.
Late last night, NPA Director-General Chang Si-liang (
Chang cited the Law on Local Government Systems (地方自治法) to Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), saying that the law gave the NPA the right to disperse the protestors along Ketagalan Boulevard.
However, this displeased Ma, as the Taipei City Government had been chiefly responsible for dealing with the protesters over the past week.
As the city government would be able to disperse the 100,000 protesters using peaceful means and minimize the impact on the city's traffic, he could not accept the NPA's request to step in during the middle of the operation, Ma said.
Ma said if the NPA insisted on carrying out the dispersion operation itself, it would have to shoulder all possible consequences. Chang decided to withdraw his request.
In reaction to the MOI's attempt to claim credit for the operation last night, Taipei City Government spokesman Wu Yu-sheng (
"Ma received orders from President Chen Shui-bian (
A NT$39 receipt for two bottles of tea at a FamilyMart was among the NT$10 million (US $312,969) special prize winners in the January-February uniform invoice lottery. FamilyMart said that two NT$10 million-winning receipts were issued at its stores, as well as two NT$2 million grand prizes and three NT$200,000 first prizes. The two NT$10 million receipts were issued at stores in Pingtung County and Yilan County’s Dongshan Township (冬山). One winner spent just NT$39 on two bottles of tea, while another spent NT$80 on water, tea and coffee, the company said. Meanwhile, 7-Eleven reported three NT$10 million winners — in New Taipei
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
RSS