The Control Yuan team investigating the Mirage fighter plane purchase has asked the deputy secretary-general of the Presidential Office, Joseph Wu, (
The Control Yuan yesterday provided the relevant years and documentary numbers, and asked the Presidential Office to investigate if it were in possession of any further related files.
Wu said the investigation would be prompt, and that any further materials, if found, would be submitted to the Control Yuan as soon as possible. The Control Yuan hopes to receive an answer from the Presidential Office within two weeks.
In addition, the Control Yuan has passed a resolution asking five members of the Control Yuan, Chao Chang-ping (
The Control Yuan has previously invited officials from the Ministry of NationalDefense and the Air Force General Headquarters to a closed-door meeting to explain the procedures leading to the decision to purchase the Mirage fighters and the additional budget allocations.
The Control Yuan is of the opinion that several items in the ministry's and the air force's explanations are impossible to clarify.
After the meeting, Control Yuan members told the press that some of the explanations regarding the purchasing, reporting and decision-making procedures were contradictory, and that the Control Yuan therefore had requested the military to provide further documentary information.
In addition to price changes in several reports regarding the Mirage purchase, there is also the question of whether the large additional budget allocations were reasonable. This is something that now must be clarified by the Control Yuan's investigative team, which is already analyzing ministry and air force data.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
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