Numerous discrepancies during the election-eve shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (
Steve Vickers, President and CEO of International Risk Ltd, spoke about his company's investigation into the shooting yesterday at a press conference arranged by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The company, which handles corporate intelligence and business risk investigations, was hired by a private group of overseas Chinese in April to look into the shooting.
Vickers' report echoed many of the of the pro-blue camp's suspicions about the shooting, such as the choice of Chi-Mei Hospital for Chen and Lu's treatment, the lack of security around the pair in the Tainan motorcade and discrepancies during treatment.
Vickers, a former senior police investigator in Hong Kong, said that while he did not doubt there had been a gunshot wound, the legitimacy of the investigation's evidence was questionable.
"A lot of the veracity of the investigation depends on the evidential provenance of the two bullets [found]," said Vickers.
The origins of two bullets and the casings found, said Vickers, seem questionable since they had different compositions and were seemingly shot together.
While the report was released in May on the company's website, it had failed to receive Taiwanese attention until now, said Vickers.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), responding yesterday to the report, mocked the KMT and the PFP for their "never-ending quest for truth and its never-ending need for new experts." Cheng Wen-tsang (
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form