The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Central Standing Committee yesterday agreed to form several anti-vote-buying centers and campaign teams for the legislative elections.
President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen said he was confident that the DPP could win 35 district legislator seats and 15 legislators-at-large seats in next month's polls. He also said a loss in those elections would not win the party sympathy votes in the March presidential election.
The Green Party Taiwan (GPT) staged a protest outside the DPP headquarters before the meetings, criticizing the party for abandoning its commitment to protect the environment.
GPT Secretary-General Pan Han-shen (
Pan led five or six supporters in chanting "black-gold DPP, incompetent in fighting global warming," and "sacrificing the environment, currying favor with business conglomerates."
Their protest was broken up by police officers deployed outside the building to protect Chen.
Attorney and environmentalist activist Robin Winkler (文魯彬) threw a book over the heads of the police officers before leaving.
In related news, Lin Mun-lee (林曼麗), whom the GPT has nominated as a candidate for legislator-at-large, said yesterday that she was no longer a DPP member because she had stopped paying her membership fees a long time ago. The DPP's Central Evaluation Committee was set to expel Lin yesterday.
"A better way to say it is that all the world's green organizations have expelled the DPP," she said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
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