■TRAFFIC
Repairs for main road
The Taipei City Government will use the four-day holiday to resurface part of the busiest section of Zhongxiao E Road starting today. The westbound lanes of Section 4 between Fuxing S Road and Guangfu S Road will be closed during the four-day weekend, Taipei City’s New Construction Office said. Wu Chun-hsien (吳俊賢), director of the office, said the office wanted to reduce the impact on traffic by completing the work during the holiday.
■EARTHQUAKES
Temblor measures 5.8
A quake measuring 5.8 on the open-ended Richter scale was recorded off southern Taiwan at 6:27am yesterday, with no damage or injuries reported, the Central Weather Bureau reported. The quake was centered in the Taiwan Strait about 124km southwest of Kaohsiung City and occurred at a depth of 77.5km beneath the surface of the sea, bureau seismologists said. The quake had an intensity of 2.0 in Kaohsiung City, Tainan County and Pingtung City.
■CRIME
Huge scam targeted women
A man was arrested for allegedly swindling more than NT$200 million (US$6.25 million) from 50 women in one of the largest scams of its kind in Taiwan, police said yesterday. The suspect, surnamed Chuang, claimed to be working for a Malaysian investment firm and allegedly encouraged women he met on online dating sites to buy overseas stocks through him, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said. At least 50 women allegedly fell victim to the 31-year-old, who was arrested on Tuesday with four accomplices, the bureau said, adding that more victims have contacted the police since then. Chuang faces charges of fraud, money laundering, forgery and drug possession, police said.
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