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Taiwan Quick Take

■ Transportation
Neihu MRT to start in 2009
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) promised on Monday that the Neihu Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line would start running in March 2009 and would begin commercial operation the following June, with no more changes made to this schedule. Hau made the promise in response to complaints by Taipei City Councilor Lee Ching-yuan (李慶元) about construction delays on the line. Lee said the Taipei City Department of Rapid Transit Systems (DORTS) had allowed repeated postponements of construction by its contractor Kung Sing Engineering Corp without imposing any penalties. The project has been delayed by 400 days, including a delay of 278 days last year and another 122 days this year, Lee said. Although DORTS had excuses for the construction delays, DORTS director Tom Chang (常岐德) should resign to take responsibility for causing trouble and difficulty for residents, Lee said.

■ Crime
Chiu Yi indicted for libel
Taipei prosecutors yesterday indicted Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) for libel. They said Chiu had alleged that President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), and daughter, Chen Hsing-yu (陳幸妤), had secret accounts with the Bank of America and that Chen Chih-chung owned a luxury residence in the US. Chiu had offered no evidence to back his claim. He also alleged that the president's children had invested in a supermarket in the US. Chiu was also indicted for slandering Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Wang Shih-cheng (王世堅) and Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳), as well as DPP Deputy Secretary-General Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), for calling them "assholes" in a speech last September.

■ Politics
Ma defends bicycle tour
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential contender Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday defended his around-the-nation bicycle tour, saying it had enabled him to come into contact with people at the grassroots level. Ma and his 30-person entourage launched the tour in Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) last Thursday. The 619km journey will take the group through 18 cities and counties on the country's western plain before ending up at Taipei County's Fukui Cape (富貴角) on Sunday. Responding to criticism that the group looked like "members of the nobility on an outing" who could not possibly be close to ordinary people, Ma described the bicycle journey as the "most dynamic way" of staying in touch with the public.

■ Food
Taiwan in bakery world final
Taiwan is ready to take on the world in the final of the Louis Lesaffre World Bakery Cup in Paris, France, next year after beating China and South Korea in the competition's qualifying rounds. Chairman of the Taipei Bakery Association, Liao Ben-tsang (廖本蒼), told a press conference yesterday that it was Taiwan's first time in the competition and its performance proved the outstanding capability of the nation's baking industry. The competition has been held once every three years since 1992. Taiwan held its first qualifying match last year. After a year of intensive training, Liao said the team pulled off an impressive performance in the Asian qualifying round held in China in March.


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