A verbal clash erupted between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (
Lu, the convenor of the legislature's Financial Committee, yesterday, dismissed the meeting around 9:15am after the other committee head -- KMT Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) -- and three other KMT members of the committee -- Alex Fai (費鴻泰), Chen Chieh (陳杰) and Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) -- did not show up, one day after Lo and his fellow KMT legislators clashed with DPP supporters and staffers when they barged into DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) campaign headquarters late on Wednesday afternoon.
Right after Lu's announcement yesterday morning, Yu challenged her decision as Lu was leaving the meeting room.
A CTV camera man fell and hit the back of his head while filming the conflict. The reporter, surnamed Huang, was sent to National Taiwan University Hospital's (NTUH) emergency care unit after complaining of nausea and vomiting. A NTUH release stated that he was suffering from nausea and elevated blood pressure when he arrived at the hospital.
An MRI scan did not show any signs of internal bleeding and his vital signs were stable, said the release. At press time, the reporter was still being kept in the hospital for observation.
At a press conference later yesterday, Lu said she dismissed the meeting in a bid to appease Wednesday's furor and allow the KMT caucus time to review the legislators' behavior.
Lu then apologized to the public and KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
"We're willing to take responsibility and accept criticism. I hereby apologize to the public and to Mr. Ma on behalf of the committee's KMT legislators to show our sincere regret," she said.
Lu added that what happened at Hsieh's headquarters on Wednesday was the "personal behavior of some legislators and did not represent the behavior of the entire committee or the KMT caucus."
The DPP caucus demanded yesterday that the four KMT legislators be sent to the legislature's disciplinary committee for punishment for breaking into Hsieh's campaign headquarters.
The caucus claimed the KMT legislators violated the Criminal Code (
Additional reporting by Angelica Oung and CNA
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS