The legislature passed a proposal Thursday night by the opposition People First Party (PFP) to set up a committee to investigate an alleged secret fund of the National Security Bureau (NSB).
The PFP alleged that a huge sum of "pocket money" of the NSB, which it estimated at more than NT$3 billion (US$85.47 million) and is comprised of money left over from its annual budgets, has eluded the legislature's monitoring.
In light of the allegations, PFP legislative whip Chou Hsi-wei (周錫偉) said his party has proposed setting up a committee to press the NSB to give a full accounting of the secret money, including principal and interest, and the use of the funds over the years to make sure that the money has not been misappropriated.
Legislators did not pass the proposal during the first vote, with only 58 for and 64 against the motion, mainly due to opposition from the ruling DPP. Chou then resubmitted the proposal after the PFP solicited the support of opposition legislators. It then passed with 73 for and 61 against.
The secret fund of the NSB first came to light when the PFP legislative caucus reported that the NSB channeled tens of millions of dollars out of the fund to the Taiwan Research Institute, a think tank with former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) as its honorary chairman.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
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