■ JUSTICE
Court annuls election win
The Yunlin District Court yesterday annulled the election victory of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) in the first trial of the case. The verdict is not final. The case began when Chang’s rival, Democratic Progressive Party legislative candidate Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國), filed a lawsuit in January to annul Chang’s victory on bribery allegations. Chang sent reporters text messages later yesterday saying that he respected the court’s decision, but that he would appeal. Chang went on to say that he would continue to focus most of his energy on serving the people in his electoral district, supervising the government and protecting the rights of the people.
■ EDUCATION
NTU won’t strip Lee’s status
National Taiwan University (NTU) secretary-general Liao Hsien-hao (廖咸浩) denied yesterday that the school was considering stripping renowned constitutional expert Lee Hung-hsi’s (李鴻禧) honorary professor status over Lee’s remarks during a rally in support of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). At a rally on Saturday last week, Lee said: “I want to curse the whole families of those judges and prosecutors who acted recklessly [in the investigation into corruption allegations against Chen.]” Liao told reporters that the school had received many angry phone calls as a result of Lee’s remarks and that it had held meetings to discuss the matter. “NTU felt shocked and regretted Professor Lee’s remarks, but since Lee is retired, he should take full responsibility for his comments,” Liao said. “We hope Professor Lee will not make controversial remarks as an NTU honorary professor again.”
■ SPORTS
Tai chi competition to open
An international Tai chi boxing competition is scheduled to open in Kaohsiung City today with practitioners from 13 countries taking part. A total of 127 practitioners from Hong Kong, South Africa, Japan, Uruguay, Bangladesh, Nepal, Peru, Germany, Spain, Italy, Malaysia, the US and Taiwan will compete in three categories over a period of two days, the Kuoshu Wushu Federation said.
■ EVENTS
Activists plan vigil
As part of a globally coordinated event to commemorate the first official abolition of the death penalty in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany on Nov. 30, 1786, anti-death penalty activists in Taipei will organize a candlelit vigil and a small “Cities for Life” concert tomorrow in front of the Chinan Presbyterian Church on the corner of Jinan Road (濟南路) and Zhongshan S Road (中山南路) in Taipei. From 6pm to 8pm, Aboriginal singers Panay and Nabu will also perform.
‘CROCODILE TEARS’: The Taiwan Statebuilding Party said the Kaohsiung mayor was only apologizing after a poll revealed that 45% of the city’s residents favored a recall Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) at a city council session yesterday apologized for taking three months off last year to campaign for January’s presidential election. Han said that he was now prioritizing municipal affairs and was focused primarily on preventing the spread of COVID-19. He was “doing two days’ work each day” to make up for time lost, he said. Han on May 5 attended a city council session for the first time in 201 days, giving a report on pandemic response measures. At yesterday’s session, Han said the Kaohsiung City Government would be injecting NT$50 million (US$1.67 million) into the
Taipei City Councilor Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) on Saturday urged the Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs to designate the Japanese colonial-era Showa Building (昭和樓) a cultural heritage site to protect it from being demolished. Wu made the remarks after the department on Tuesday last week visited the building to evaluate it for preservation, a standard procedure before a public building that is more than 50 years old is razed. The Showa Building, on Zhongxiao E Road Sec 2, was a rare kind of office building when it was constructed in 1942, Wu said. The three-story building was built with reinforced concrete and has European-style
A proposal by the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) to permanently ban sitting in Taipei Railway Station’s main hall has received a mixed reaction online, with some social media users vowing to launch a sit-in at the station. Gatherings at the hall have been prohibited since Feb. 29 in accordance with the Central Epidemic Command Center’s policy of reducing crowd sizes in public places. A Facebook user organizing the sit-in said that the hall is a public space and there is no legitimate reason to ban sitting on the floor. He said he suspected that the proposal was made due to business considerations and
Chinese over-the-top (OTT) service provider iQiyi cannot register as a provider in Taiwan after the Mainland Affairs Council declared it to be an illegal service, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday. Both iQiyi and WeTV were deemed to be illegal Chinese OTT operators in an interdepartmental meeting on Friday last week, officials said, adding that this prohibits them from marketing their services in Taiwan or seeking subscribers. The government plans to block a local server that iQiyi has been using to transmit content to domestic audiences, which would disrupt its content transmission. OTT Entertainment Ltd, which is enlisted by iQiyi to
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