Government Information Office (GIO) Minister Pasuya Yao (
"I take full responsibility for the full-page newspaper advertisement that the GIO ran a couple of days ago," Yao said at a meeting of a legislative committee.
"But I admit that it was not appropriate for Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] Chairman Ma's [Ying-jeou (
CONTROVERSIAL AD
Yao was referring to the GIO's full-page advertisement defending the Cabinet's proposal for a national communication commission (NCC).
The ad said the proposed commission would be a neutral body and avoid politics.
The KMT insists that the commission's membership should be distributed among the political parties based on the number of seats they hold in the legislature.
The ad "requested" Ma's help in keeping the commission non-political, but many viewed the ad as insulting both Ma and the KMT.
"I am a government official who was appointed by the ruling party. I think it is quite natural for me to defend the ruling party's policies. There is nothing wrong with it," Yao said.
`SLACKER' ALLEGATION
In addition to coming under fire over the advertisement, Yao was accused of being a slacker during President Chen Shui-bian's (
According to reports in the Chinese-language media, Yao invited one of the stewardesses on the presidential charter flight out for drinks during the visit to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, and the drinking session went on late into the night.
MISTAKES
The reports said that Yao made mistakes during his press briefings the following day and dozed off dozing during a press conference given by Chen -- actions the reports attributed to his night out.
People First Party Legislator Diane Lee (
Yao said Lee should not believe the rumors.
"I am embarrassed ... and I apologize," Yao said, in an apparent reference to being caught dozing off.
"As for the drinking part, I have said it many times before that the stewardess is the girlfriend of a good friend. We did not stay up all night, either," he said.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be
RSS