■ earthquakes
Twelve tremors hit nation
The nation was struck by 12 undersea earthquakes yesterday, including a powerful one in the east, but there were no reports of damage or casualties, the earthquake center said yesterday. The first quake, measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale occurred at 2:28am, shaking Taitung County. The second tremor struck 24 minutes later with a magnitude of 4.3 near Chengkung (成功) in Taitung, the center said. Ten other quakes, measuring more than 4 on the Richter scale, including one with a magnitude of 5.4 and another of 5.2, rocked the eastern county between 3:33am and 9:04am, it said. There were no reports of damage or casualties, the center and police said.
■ politics
Cabinet doesn’t need DPP
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday he did not think that the incoming Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration, which is a majority government, needed to recruit DPP members to the new Cabinet, emphasizing that cooperation between political parties should focus on policy. Hsieh made the remarks in response to a report published in yesterday’s Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) that DPP legislators had expressed reservations on the possible recruitment of Straits Exchange Foundation Vice Chairman Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌) to the new Cabinet. Dismissing the possibility as hypothetical, Hsieh said the question concerned personal desire and that his party would not begin considering such a possibility until the KMT administration officially made an announcement. Hong last night denied that he would join the new Cabinet, saying he would resign along with the other members of the current Cabinet before May 20.
■ crime
Fine, but no jail for Wu
The Tainan branch of the Taiwan High Court yesterday converted Tainan County Council Speaker Wu Chien-pao’s (吳健保) five-month jail sentence for gambling into a fine, adding that the verdict was not subject to appeal. A spokesperson for the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, which meted out the jail sentence on April 10, said the office found the verdict regrettable but respected it. Wu ran several gambling houses in Tainan County between 2004 and 2005. On one occasion, then Tainan County deputy council speaker Kuo Hsiu-chu (郭秀珠) lost more than NT$80 million during a 10-day period. Wu was indicted on gambling charges by Tainan prosecutors. The decision on a second appeal issued on Feb. 2 this year said that Wu could pay a fine instead of serving jail time. The Tainan Prosecutors’ Office, however, decided not to allow Wu to substitute the jail sentence for a fine of NT$137,700, and instead sent Wu directly to jail. Wu immediately filed an appeal, with the High Court ruling in favor of a fine.
■ politics
No invitation for Chen yet
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has not yet decided whether to attend president-elect Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration on May 20 because he has not received an invitation, the Presidential Office said yesterday. The Presidential Office issued a statement dismissing a recent TVBS report that claimed Chen had turned down the invitation because it was customary for Chen to do volunteer work on inauguration day. “There is considerable discrepancy between fact and the report,” the statement said. In response, Ma’s spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said yesterday that Ma’s office would send out the invitations, including Chen’s, after finalizing the guest list.
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office today requested that a court detain three individuals, including Keelung Department of Civil Affairs Director Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔), in connection with an investigation into forged signatures used in recall campaigns. Chang is suspected of accessing a household registration system to assist with recall campaigns targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors Cheng Wen-ting (鄭文婷) and Jiho Chang (張之豪), prosecutors said. Prosecutors yesterday directed investigators to search six locations, including the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Keelung office and the residences of several recall campaign leaders. The recall campaign leaders, including Chi Wen-chuan (紀文荃), Yu Cheng-i (游正義) and Hsu Shao-yeh
COVID-19 infections have climbed for three consecutive weeks and are likely to reach another peak between next month and June, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. Weekly hospital visits for the disease increased by 19 percent from the previous week, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said. From Tuesday last week to yesterday, 21 cases of severe COVID-19 and seven deaths were confirmed, and from Sept. 1 last year to yesterday, there were 600 cases and 129 deaths, he said. From Oct. 1 last year to yesterday, 95.9 percent of the severe cases and 96.7 percent of the deaths
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