Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun yesterday defended the party's decision to choose its legislative candidates through opinion polls, urging the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) to cooperate with it for a pan-green victory.
President Chen Shui-bian (
"The pan-blue camp has already integrated itself, and the pan-green camp will lose the elections if we don't cooperate with each other," Yu said in Taipei.
"It's our responsibility to unite the pan-green camp, and the DPP will show its sincerity," he said.
TSU policy committee director Chou Mei-li (
"I hope the DPP will respect the TSU's political strength, and won't field candidates based on poll results unless necessary," she told a press conference at the TSU's headquarters.
The TSU is not opposed to holding opinion polls, but it preferred to negotiate with the DPP first about the distribution of the seats, Chou said.
She said party officials would talk to TSU legislators who are opposed to fielding candidates based on opinion polls. While TSU was willing to cooperate with the DPP, Chou said it would not follow the pan-blue camp's example and merge with its larger ally.
When asked to comment on the pan-green camp's cooperation plan, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) said his party and the People First Party have been making a great effort to negotiate on the seats in next year's elections, and their process was going more smoothly that that of the pan-green camp.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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