POLITICS
Vote-buying arrests made
Greater Kaohsiung judges yesterday ordered three people detained on suspicion of vote-buying for an Aboriginal candidate. Prosecutors said that Ko Wu-ta (柯武達), acting director of the Namasiya District (那瑪夏) office in Greater Kaohsiung, was suspected of engaging in vote-buying between October and November last year. They said that Ko had asked Chou Wei-ping (周維平) to deliver cash to Chou Hsiou-mei (周秀美), an elementary-school principal who distributed the money to several people — including a man named Lu Bao-shen (盧保生) — to conduct vote-buying for the candidate. Prosecutors said Lu was suspected of bribing a number of voters, giving them NT$2,000 each. Chou Hsiou-mei is now in detention. Meanwhile, in Hualien County, nine people from Sioulin Township (秀林) were arrested on suspicion of being involved in vote-buying. Prosecutors seized NT$300,000 in cash and a number of health food products from one of the suspects’ residence. They said the nine suspects had handed out between NT$2,000 and NT$2,500 in cash to bribe voters. Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office head Lin Ching-tsung (林慶宗) said prosecutors had received more than 50 complaints about vote-buying, of which five were “very suspicious” and were being investigated. To avoid affecting the elections, the Ministry of Justice has asked prosecutors not to name candidates being investigated for vote-buying.
SCIENCE
Expert saves NT$6.8m
A forensic expert said yesterday she saved a total of NT$6.8 million (US$226,560) in damaged banknotes after months of effort, the largest single collection of such notes in Taiwan. Liu Hui-fen (劉蕙芬), who has worked for the Investigation Bureau for 30 years and has trained herself to be a “jigsaw expert” since 2006, accepted NT$7.2 million water-damaged notes in May last year from a man surnamed Huang (黃) living in Greater Tainan. Liu first used an ultrasonic vibrator on the banknotes and managed to recover NT$1.85 million. Another month of using the vibrator recovered NT$2.5 million more. Liu then spent five months to restore NT$2.45 million. Huang, who lost about NT$400,000 in unrecoverable notes, expressed gratitude to Liu. The bureau dealt with 12 such cases in 2006, when the service first began to be offered, and by last year it dealt with 83 cases, said Hu Hsing-yung (胡興勇), a bureau section chief.
SOCIETY
Free firecracker CDs
The Taipei City Government is giving away free CDs of exploding firecrackers ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday as part of efforts to avoid air pollution. It has long been a tradition to set off firecrackers to celebrate the beginning of Lunar New Year. However, the smoke causes air pollution, while the paper left behind also pollutes the environment, city environmental officials said yesterday. The city government has prepared the CDs for people who want to have a festive atmosphere without disturbing their neighbors or polluting, the officials said. The CDs are available from the Department of Environment Protection, or can be obtained from the Web site of the Environment Protection Administration at http://ivyl.epa.gov.tw/noise/DD/D-01.htm, they said.
BUSINESS
CPC inks deal for LNG
CPC Corp, Taiwan has signed a long-term contract to buy natural gas from Australian supplier Ichthys LNG. CPC said it planned to buy 1.59 million tonnes of liquified natural gas (LNG) annually for 15 years, beginning in 2017 at the earliest.
DIPLOMACY
Liu sentencing hearing set
The sentencing hearing for Jacqueline Liu (劉姍姍), the Taiwanese diplomat who has been detained on labor fraud charges since November, is scheduled for Jan. 27. Don Ledford, a spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, confirmed the sentencing date in an e-mail discussing Liu’s case. Liu, the former director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Kansas City, Missouri, was arrested by the FBI on Nov. 10 on charges of underpaying and overworking two Filipino housekeepers. After she was arrested and detained, her lawyer negotiated a plea bargain agreement under which Liu would plead guilty to the charges and then be sentenced to time served and pay US$80,044 in restitution to the two victims before being deported. US District Judge David Gregory Kays will decide at the sentencing hearing whether the court accepts the agreement.
CRIME
Heist suspects arrested
Five suspects have been arrested in connection with a heist last week in northern Taiwan, police said yesterday. On Monday last week, three employees of Taiwan Business Bank’s Houli (后里) branch in Greater Taichung were robbed by a gang after they collected NT$1.27 million (US$42,370) in cash from a restaurant near the Liyutan Reservoir in neighboring Miaoli County to deposit in the bank. On their way back to work, their car was stopped by a group headed by the alleged leader, surnamed Chiu (邱), in a staged traffic accident and they were robbed at gunpoint. Chiu, in his 50s, is said to have planned the heist after learning that the bank sends staff to collect cash from the restaurant on a regular basis. Chiu and four accomplices were arrested, but one suspect was still at large, police said.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all