A group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday accused the government of interfering with the judicial investigation into Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (
Taiwan High Court Prosecutor-General Hsieh Wen-ting (謝文定) was required to decide whether to indict Ma for the matter before the Dec. 9 elections for the mayors of Taipei and Kaohsiung, KMT Legislator Justin Chou (周守訓) told a press conference.
"The investigation into the allegation against President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) state affairs fund has dragged on. Why does Ma have to be indicted within two months?" he asked.
PHOTO: CNA
Chou also criticized Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) for sitting on a document proposed to help prosecutors clear up the "gray area" of the allowance system.
Ma, who was accused of misusing the fund, has defended himself by saying that potential problems with the way that he handled the mayoral special allowance were the result of pitfalls in the way the allowance system was organized.
The case is now being handled by Prosecutor Hou Kuan-jen (
"The document proposed by the officials with the seventh section of the Executive Yuan would help prosecutors understand the systemic problems with the special allowance fund, but Su refused to hand it over to prosecutors," Chou said.
Chou, however, didn't provide evidence for either accusation.
In response, Hsieh said that "It is untrue [that prosecutors were asked to indict Ma by Dec.9.]" "[Chou is] full of crap. Neither I nor the Black Gold Investigation Center has suffered political pressure for the investigation [into Ma's fund]," Hsieh said, urging lawmakers to provide proof of their accusations instead of talking through their hats.
Cabinet Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (
"I have no idea where the lawmaker's accusation came from. Since it is a legal case, a decision regarding any possible irregularities will be decided by prosecutors. The premier never tries to hold sway over prosecutors," he said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS