Kaohsiung prosecutors yesterday said the investigation into the Kaohsiung vote-buying scandal could soon be closed after a key individual in the investigation had been apprehended.
The Kaohsiung District Court early yesterday morning agreed to prosecutor requests to detain Tsai Neng-hsiang (蔡能祥), nicknamed Hei Sung (黑松), who admitted under questioning that he gave 48 individuals on a bus NT$500 (US$15) each and asked them to vote for a mayoral and a Kaohsiung city councilor candidate.
Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office spokesman Chung Chung-hsiao (鍾忠孝) yesterday said Tsai told prosecutors that Ku Hsin-ming (古鋅酩) had ordered him to give money to bribe the voters, adding that he had no idea who else was behind the vote-buying scheme.
Prosecutors are still looking for Ku, who is rumored to have rented a bus that carried Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Huang Chun-ying (
While prosecutors are on the lookout for Ku, they were still not clear on whether Huang Chun-ying or KMT Kaohsiung City councilor candidate Huang Po-ling (黃柏霖). knew about the vote-buying or had ordered Tsai and Ku to do so.
Prosecutors could not rule out the possibility that the two Huang campaign staffers or other individuals had decided to act on their own initiative, Chung added.
"We have questioned more than 20 individuals on the bus so far. They all admitted to receiving NT$500 and being asked to vote for a mayoral candidate and city councilor candidate," Chung added.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
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A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it