President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has designated Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) his special envoy to the official inaugurations of the heads of states of three of the nation’s diplomatic allies next month.
Yang is scheduled to visit Nicaragua and Guatemala in Central America and Gambia in Africa during a 19-day tour that starts on Tuesday, during which he will make several transit stops in the US and Europe.
He will attend the swearing-in ceremony for Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega on Jan. 10, that of Guatemalan president-elect Otto Perez Molina on Jan. 14 and the inauguration ceremony for Gambian President -Yahya -Jammeh on Jan. 19.
“These are our country’s important allies and we would like to express our congratulations to them in person,” Yang said, adding that his stopovers in the US and EU would be purely for transit purposes.
Separately, Yang said he decided on Thursday to overrule a policy that would have required nationals from Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines who have married a Taiwanese and are seeking residential visas to stay in Taiwan for more than six months to have their fingerprints taken.
Bureau of Consular Affairs Director--General Thomas Chen (陳經銓) announced the policy at a press briefing on Thursday morning.
Chen said the policy was aimed at preventing fake marriages and targeted at countries where the -processing of identity cards is not rigorous, citing figures indicating that between 15 percent and 30 percent of spouses from these countries were suspected of fake marriages and are denied visas.
However, Yang said the issue was “not urgent” and the situation “had improved in recent years.”
“Considering the limited manpower and equipment [at the ministry’s overseas missions] to process fingerprinting, we will focus on more pressing problems,” Yang said, referring to identity fraud involving migrant workers.
Yang brushed off a media inquiry as to whether the U-turn was made to avoid upsetting foreign spouses in the run up to the Jan. 14 election. It is estimated that between 80,000 and 90,000 people from that group are eligible to vote next month.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) yesterday authorized the execution of convicted murderer Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), the first death row prisoner to be put to death since President William Lai (賴清德) took office. Huang was to be executed via a firing squad yesterday evening, which would leave Taiwan with 36 convicts on death row. Huang on Oct. 1, 2013, broke into his ex-girlfriend Wang Ping-chih’s (王品智) residence in New Taipei City, where he raped and murdered Wang. He also killed Wang’s mother. Huang was bitter over the breakup and her accusation that he had stolen NT$200,000 (US$6,074) from her bank account, prosecutors said
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