The dispute over the "defamatory" VCDs continued to heat up as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday urged the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to join his party in denouncing "filthy electronic blackmail."
Quoting his DPP counterpart Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and saying it was "ultra-low class" to try to and win an election by making and spreading slanderous VCDs, Ma said yesterday during a question-and-answer session at the Taipei City Council that "the VCDs are nothing but electronic blackmail, and I think the DPP should join us in denouncing such smear tactics."
Taoyuan County prosecutors summoned Lin Yi-fang (林一方), producer of the VCD allegedly smearing Taoyuan County Commissioner Chu Li-lun (朱立倫) for questioning yesterday, but Lin did not show.
The prosecutors said they will summon him again to get more information about the dispute.
Asked by KMT Councilor Chen Li-hui (陳孋輝) yesterday whether the KMT should make a "truth" VCD to fight back against all the accusations, Ma said the party will not get involved in negative campaigning.
"I never said the DPP produced the VCDs, and I don't know why they accused me of saying such things," Ma said, referring to the filing of a slander lawsuit against him and KMT spokeswoman Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文) by the DPP yesterday.
Meanwhile, KMT Taipei City Councilor Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) yesterday slammed the DPP government for misleading the public into believing that only retired high-rank officials from the pan-blue camp enjoyed the 18 percent preferential interest rate on their savings.
Lin said that Chunghwa Telecom chairman Ho Chen-tan (賀陳旦) and former China Steel Corp (中鋼) chairman Lin Wen-yuan (林文淵), who were Taipei City government officials when President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was mayor enjoyed the preferential interest rate on their savings after they retired from the city government and before they took their current posts.
"The 18-percent interest rate policy is not just a pan-blue issue, and not a pan-green one either. It is a policy designed to take care of civil servants," Lin said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
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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