■ Politics
Speculation over Lien
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday said that it is inappropriate to discuss whether Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) should resign and who should take over the party's leadership. "The most pressing issue on hand now for the party is the year-end legislative election," said Wang, one of the KMT's vice chairmen who is largely regarded by pan-blue supporters as the key representative of the party's pro-localization faction. Wang's remark was in response to a mounting buzz that members of the faction had voiced support for Wang as the party's future chairman and proposed that he and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) run on a joint ticket in the 2008 presidential election.
■ Polls
Tang appears popular
Minister of National Defense Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明) was the most popular Cabinet member, even though he has asked to resign because of health problems, a newspaper poll showed yesterday. The survey by the China Times reported that 61 percent of those polled were satisfied with Tang. Only 8 percent were dissatisfied with him and the rest had no opinion or had never heard of him, the poll said. Tang tried to resign after the March 20 presidential poll, citing eye problems, but the government persuaded him to stay, as it grapples with a dispute over results that saw President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) narrowly win re-election. The newspaper said the telephone poll, conducted from April 1 to April 3, involved 1,233 successful responses and had a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
■ Crime
Authorities seize ketamine
Police said yesterday they seized more than 27kg of liquid ketamine and arrested two suspects at Kaohsiung International Airport a day earlier for smuggling the illegal drug in liquor bottles. Police said they were tipped off in January that a woman drug trafficker surnamed Fu was planning to smuggling ketamine after she saw how popular it was in pubs and that the ketamine in China was cheap and only a controlled substance. After three months, police were able to find Fu's connection and trace the source of the ketamine from the manufacturer in China. Police learned that Fu, together with three other women and an eight-year-old, left for Zhuhai in Guangdong Province via Macau on March 31 and were scheduled to return last Sunday. Fu and another suspect surnamed Lee arrived at Kaohsiung's Hsiaokang International Airport Sunday afternoon and were found to have 96 bottles of Chinese liquor in which the ketamine was hidden.
■ Languages
Russians to hold contest
Russia's representative office in Taiwan will host a Russian language proficiency contest later this month in a bid to forge mutual understanding and boost exchanges, a spokesman for the mission said yesterday. George Zinoviev, the first deputy representative of the Moscow-Taipei Economic and Cultural Coordination Commission, said the mission is slated to host the competition April 22 and sponsor relevant activities in cooperation with National Chengchi University, Tamkang University and Chinese Culture University. Zinoviev expressed his hope that the people of Taiwan will gain a better understanding of Russia's culture and language through the series of activities to lay a foundation for more frequent and closer bilateral ties.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS