■ Diplomacy
Panama gets aid donation
Taiwan has donated funds for the Panamanian government to build elementary schools in remote rural regions, repair highway surfaces and expand prison facilities as part of a bilateral cooperation program between the two countries. Hou Ping-fu (侯平福), Taiwan's ambassador to Panama, presented the funds on behalf of the government in a ceremony held at Panama's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday. Panamanian first lady Vivian Fernandez de Torrijos, Minister of Public Works Benjamin Colamarco and Minister of the Interior and Justice Olga Golcher received the donations. A portion of the aid will finance construction of 90 elementary schools in the countryside as the Panamanian government is actively promoting compulsory education in the country's rural and distant communities, Hou said. The fund will also be used to finance a project to repair a 20km section of highway leading to the indigenous community of Darien in eastern Panama, Hou said, adding that the repair project would make it easier for Aborigines to see a doctor in urban areas.
■ Diplomacy
Chen Chu staying in hospital
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), who has been hospitalized since suffering a stroke on April 26, will remain in hospital for two more weeks for further rehabilitation, a city government official said yesterday. According to Hsiao Yu-cheng (蕭裕正) , director of the Kaohsiung City Government's Department of Information, Chen's doctors at the Kaohsiung Medical Hospital advised her to build up strength in her right leg and lose more weight before being discharged from the hospital.
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.
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