Three former legislators who lost their seats in last month's legislative elections were recruited to the Cabinet yesterday.
Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Wang Tuoh (王拓) was appointed chairman of the Council for Cultural Affairs, taking over the position that was vacated by Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠), who was elected a DPP legislator-at large last month.
Former DPP legislator Julian Kuo (郭正亮) will succeed Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), who was also elected a DPP legislator-at-large, as deputy chairman of Sports Affairs Council.
Former Council of Hakka Affairs deputy minister Chiu Yi-ying's (邱議瑩) position will be filled by former DPP legislator Peng Tien-fu (彭添富).
Government Information Office Minister Shieh Jhy-wey (
Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南), who was appointed Governor of the Central Bank of China in February 1998, has been asked by Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) to serve in the position for another five-year term, Shieh said.
Deputy Minister of Justice Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) will move to become deputy minister of Transportation and Communications, filling the position left vacant since last May, when Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) was promoted to Executive Yuan secretary-general.
Lee's vacancy at the Justice Ministry will be filled by former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator Kuo Lin-yung (郭林勇).
Minister Without Portfolio Lin Chin-chang (
Chen Tso-chen (陳佐鎮) has been appointed deputy minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. He has previously served as director-general of the Bureau of Standards, head of the economic department at the nation's representative office in Canada and also as director of the ministry's office in central Taiwan.
Vacancies left to be filled in the Cabinet are vice chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development, vice chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission and vice chairman of the Fair Trade Commission.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to