Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (
The 81 KMT legislators will meet the chairman on Thursday, April 7 and April 8 to discuss how they should carry out their immediate duties, including seeking legislative reform through sunshine bills.
Wu and the legislators will also talk about amending the party's internal regulations, Lin said.
BILLS
Lin said that the caucus would initiate proposals at several legislative committees this week to prioritize 16 bills that are "less controversial" for committee review.
The caucus' move came after Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
METHADONE
The 16 bills, which include an amendment to the Narcotics Endangerment Prevention Act (毒品危害防治條例) proposed by Hsieh to offer methadone maintenance treatment as a way to reduce drug dependence, will likely be put to a second reading if the committees complete their preliminary review by the plenary session on Friday.
Lin said that the caucus would be willing to push the bills through a third reading as soon as possible.
The legislature is scheduled to begin reviews of bills during the weekly plenary session after the legislative interpellation of the premier ends tomorrow.
PRESSURE
Meanwhile, president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (
The KMT, which now dominates both branches of the government, should shoulder full responsibility for the administration, he said.
Democracy means that the majority rules, but the voice of the minority should be respected while differences of opinion should be allowed to exist, he said.
He called for an end to the political wrangling between the pan-green and the pan-blue camps and said the war of words that characterized the presidential election was a thing of the past.
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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