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Taiwan News Quick Take

■POLITICS

Gift raises eyebrows

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ho Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) caused a controversy after the Apple Daily reported that she gave about 10 KMT lawmakers Chinese-made cellphones as presents. The move prompted speculation that she might be eyeing a seat on the KMT Central Standing Committee. The Chinese-language newspaper reported on Saturday that “a certain rich KMT legislator” had given colleagues phones valued at NT$3,000 as gifts for the Dragon Boat Festival. KMT Legislator Chang Sho-wen (張碩文) said he had received a phone from Ho, but the present had nothing to do with the upcoming committee election. KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), who also received a phone, said Ho couldn’t use the phones to win support for the election. Ho said the phones had nothing to do with the election. “I gave this present to my good friends because it would be very useful for elected representatives,” she said.



■ENVIRONMENT

Exposure leads to ban

A man who stripped while climbing Yushan (玉山) last week has been banned from the mountain and his case was sent to prosecutors because he had “ruined the scenery,” national park officials said. A friend took photos of a 30-year-old man, surnamed Lu (呂), posing naked on the 3,952m peak on Tuesday and posted them online, the officials said. The man has been barred from Yushan for one to three years and could face charges. “I think he was just goofing around,” a Yushan National Park Administration official said. “He said it was just for fun. But Taiwanese are conservative, and Yushan is our sacred peak.”



■CROSS-STRAIT TIES

Man arrested for threat

A Taiwanese man was arrested for threatening to attack a group of Chinese gymnasts visiting under a sports exchange program, Chinese-language media reported yesterday. The man, surnamed Liao (廖), was arrested in Taoyuan on Saturday after he reportedly made a phone call to a Taoyuan police station on Wednesday threatening to attack the gymnasts. Liao reportedly told police that he was a member of the Taiwan Independence Alliance and was angry that gymnasts were performing that evening at the Taoyuan Arena, so he was going to shoot them with a crossbow, media reports said. On hundred extra officers were sent to the arena and the exhibition went off smoothly. Police traced the call to a public telephone in Taipei, took fingerprints and arrested Liao on Saturday. During questioning, Liao, 45, reportedly told police he favored independence, and was angered by billboard ads for the gymnastic event. He said he made the threat to express his anger at China and because he was drunk. Police turned him over to prosecutors on charges of disturbing social order.



■WEATHER

Rain forecast for this week

Although the plum rains may have hit a record low this year, a front will begin to affect the country tomorrow, possibly bringing regional thunderstorms, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Intermittent rains were predicted for today in the north and northeast, as well as mountainous areas in the center and south and the front was expected to bring thunderstorms to the entire island on Wednesday. Intermittent rain and thunderstorms will affect the entire country until Saturday, when the front will move southward. Light rain is expected in the south and east from Saturday, cloudy skies elsewhere, the bureau said.


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