GOVERNMENT
NSB general impeached
All 13 Control Yuan members voted to impeach National Security Bureau (NSB) Major General Hsieh Ching-hua (謝靜華) for allegedly assaulting a woman in February. The case is to be handed to the Disciplinary Court for trial, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Hsieh was found to have forcibly kissed a woman on a sidewalk, it said. The scene was caught on camera and revealed by the press. The watchdog said that Hsieh had consumed alcohol before the incident, adding that he had lied during the NSB investigation, which led to the agency providing false information to the public. Hsieh had violated the victim and damaged the reputation of NSB special agents, the Control Yuan said. NSB personnel faced higher scrutiny and are held to higher standards than other public servants due to the nature of the agency’s national intelligence work, it added. The NSB in a statement said that it respects the conclusions reached by the Control Yuan and would cooperate with the Disciplinary Court trial. The bureau also pledged to boost the training of its personnel and said that any misconduct would be handled appropriately.
LEGISLATIVE YUAN
Session extended to Jan. 21
The legislative session would be extended to Jan. 21 to allow for the passing of the delayed budget bill and other contested legislation, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) said on Wednesday. The Legislative Yuan meets twice a year, from February to May and from September to December, with the option to extend sessions if necessary. Since the second session started on Sept. 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party lawmakers, who together hold a majority of seats, have repeatedly blocked the Cabinet’s NT$3.33 trillion (US$102.32 billion) budget proposal. They say that the budget failed to include funding for changes made by the legislature earlier this year, and demanded that the Cabinet revise and resubmit the plan. The Democratic Progressive Party on Nov. 7 ceded to their demands following a meeting between Cabinet officials and legislative leaders.
CRIME
Case judgement sought
Prosecutors have requested a summary judgement against a Kaohsiung woman who earlier this year allegedly called the 110 emergency number multiple times in the middle of the night to insult police officers. A court filing by the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office said that the 57-year-old woman, surnamed Lin (林), made nine calls to police using the 110 emergency hotline between 2am and 4am on Aug. 6. In her first call, Lin said she wanted to file a police report. When the officer on duty inquired about details, she asked him if he had “forgotten to bring his brain to work,” the filing said. The officer then played Lin a recording informing her that calling 110 without justification and ignoring subsequent warnings could be punishable as a crime against public order, at which point she hung up, the filing said. Soon after, Lin called the hotline again, swearing at the officers on duty and referring to them as “animals” and “garbage,” it said. Officers from the Kaohsiung Police Department’s Sinsing Precinct arrested her on suspicion of obstructing an officer. Prosecutors said Lin’s actions had contravened Article 140 of the Criminal Code and requested that the Kaohsiung District Court issue a summary judgement against her, as the facts of the case were not in dispute. Obstructing a public official is punishable by a prison sentence of up to one year or a maximum fine of NT$100,000.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
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