Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez yesterday offered his condolences to people affected by the earthquake that struck Hualien County late on Tuesday.
“On behalf of all Honduran people, I extend my deepest sympathy to the people of Taiwan, especially the families affected by the earthquake. President Tsai [Ing-wen] (蔡英文), our sincere support to you,” Hernandez wrote in Spanish in a tweet.
Several foreign representatives to Taiwan also offered their condolences on Facebook, including American Institute (AIT) in Taiwan Director Kin Moy and British Representative to Taiwan Catherine Nettleton.
“On behalf of my American Institute in Taiwan family and my colleagues in the U.S. Government, I want to let all the people affected by the earthquake know that you are in our thoughts today,” Moy wrote on the AIT’s official Facebook page.
Lawmakers across party lines have jointly announced that they would suspend their election campaign events for one day to focus on helping people who affected by the magnitude 6 earthquake.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) and Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), who are vying for the party’s Taichung mayoral nomination, announced that they have suspended all campaign events.
Lu said that the Hualien County Government asked her to announce that the county is busy coordinating disaster relief and to ask residents to refrain from visiting the county offices for personal business today.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said that the current atmosphere is not appropriate for campaign events and he would be suspending all election-related events for several days.
DPP Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) also canceled events in Taipei, where he was to canvass for support and hand out Lunar New year couplets.
Instead he met with his campaign team to discuss how to help Hualien residents affected by the earthquake.
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
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by