Whether or not Presidential Secretary-General Mark Chen (
Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Cho Jung-tai (
Duty
When pressed by opposition committee members, Cho said that he was personally willing to testify in keeping with the spirit of the Criminal Procedure Code (
The Taipei District Court has asked Chen and four other members of the presidential staff to testify tomorrow to shed light on President Chen Shui-bian's (
The court wants to determine whether the individuals know anything about the fund, part of which the president claims to have spent on secret diplomatic projects.
Punishment
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) warned that Mark Chen could be fined NT$30,000 if he is absent for no good reason and that the court could issue a warrant for the presidential secretary-general.
Lai said that Mark Chen would set a very bad public example by not testifying and that he could be willfully obstructing the court session to protect President Chen. The president has pledged to step down if his wife, Wu Shu-jen (
Cho said it was a waste of time for the committee to speculate on Mark Chen's intentions.
KMT Legislator Tsao Erh-chang (曹爾忠) said that if President Chen had been honest about the "state affairs fund," Cho, Mark Chen and National Security Council Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) had failed to do a good job of advising the president.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsieh Hsin-ni (
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 2:23pm today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was 5.4 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 34.9 km, according to the CWA. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was the highest in Hualien County, where it measured 2 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 1 in Yilan county, Taichung, Nantou County, Changhua County and Yunlin County, the CWA said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
RSS