Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
The legislature's Procedure Committee yesterday set the agenda and the schedule for reviewing and voting on President Chen Shui-bian's (
Lin, now the deputy auditor-general of the ministry, was named to replace the 80-year-old Su Chen-ping (蘇振平), who had served in the position for three six-year terms since 1989.
Lawmakers will have a plenary question-and-answer session with Lin tomorrow and a confirmation vote is scheduled for Friday.
In related developments, negotiations on a schedule for screening and voting on nominees for the Council of Grand Justices remained stalled because of objections from the People First Party (PFP).
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
The Democratic Progressive Party has claimed that the PFP was withholding its confirmation of grand justice nominees as a bargaining chip in separate negotiations over Chen's new nominees for Control Yuan members, an allegation that the PFP has denied.
It was rumored that the PFP had recommended two of its legislators -- Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) and Feng Ting-kuo (馮定國) -- as well as party Deputy Secretary-General Ma Chieh-ming (馬傑明) for inclusion in the president's Control Yuan nomination list.
Legislative Vice Speaker Chung Jung-chi (
Wang said that the legislature could handle confirmation hearings for Control Yuan members and for grand justices at the same time.
In response, Deputy Presidential Office Secretary-General Cho Jung-tai (
As for the president's choice for Control Yuan members, Cho said that Chen would take different opinions into consideration and decide on the matter as soon as possible.
Chen has nominated incumbent Grand Justice Lai Ying-jaw (
Eight candidates have also been selected for grand justice positions. They are Yeh Sai-ying (
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
A 23-year-old Taichung man vowed to drink more water after his heavy consumption of sugary tea landed him in hospital with a kidney infection and sepsis. The man, surnamed Lin (林), used to drink two cups of half-sugar oolong tea while working at a food stall, where he often had to wait a long time before urinating. Lin developed kidney stones and noticed blood in his urine, but ignored the issue after taking medication for three days. A month later, he went to the emergency room after experiencing a recurring fever and was diagnosed with a kidney infection that led to sepsis, landing