News

Ma confidante faces bribery charges

Friday, 29 March 2013 09:07 Taipei Times

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Lai Su-ju, second right, arrives for questioning in connection with a corruption investigation at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday evening.
Photo: CNA

The Taipei Prosecutors’ Office yesterday sought the court’s permission to detain a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City councilor known for her close ties to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), on suspicion of accepting bribes in the bidding process for the Taipei Twin Towers project.

Lai Su-ju (賴素如), a lawyer and former KMT spokeswoman who now runs Ma’s KMT chairman’s office, was accused of promising to help a multinational consortium win the bid for the project in exchange for NT$10 million (US$334,520).

Self-immolation Toll 113: Exile administration offers prayers

Friday, 29 March 2013 09:03 Phayul.com

Undated photo of Tulku Thupten Nyendak and Atse

DHARAMSHALA, March 28: Considering different ways of setting themselves on fire in Tibet, the exile Tibetan administration includes Tulku Thupten Nyendak and his niece Atse in the list of self-immolators.

Forty-five-year-old Thupten Nyendak of Dragkar Monastery in Lhagang in Kham, Eastern Tibet, and Atse, 23, from Serta Tibetan Buddhist Institute set themselves on fire at the former’s residence in Dzogchen Monastery on 6 April 2012. This reportedly happened after they offered butter lamps and prayers for all the Tibetan.