■ CRIME
Taichung gas station probed
Taichung prosecutors raided a gas station yesterday to investigate allegations the station was hoarding gasoline ahead of planned fuel price hikes. Prosecutor Hung Pai-ken (洪培根) said the station was suspected of hoarding 500,000 liters of gasoline. Hung said gas station managers could be charged under the Offenses against Public Safety Act (公共危險罪) if they illegally hoard gasoline and prosecutors would investigate more stations in Taichung City and Taichung County. The Cabinet announced last week that it would raise gasoline prices by as much as NT$6 per liter starting next Monday.
■ POLITICS
Southern chiefs oppose plan
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said yesterday that she and the heads of six other cities and counties in southern Taiwan have agreed to oppose an Executive Yuan plan to allocate funds for local public construction projects based on the population of each city and county. Under the plan, Taipei County, Taipei City and Taoyuan County would receive the biggest chunks of the NT$114.4 billion (US$3.74 billion) the central government will allocate this year to boost local economies. Speaking with reporters outside the Kaohsiung City Council, Chen said the local government chiefs met in Tainan City on Sunday to discuss the Cabinet’s plan. All the mayors and county commissioners voiced unhappiness with the plan, she said, because it perpetuates the north-south imbalance in resource allocation. They urged the central government to consider the specific needs of local governments when allocating the funds.
■ CRIME
Councilor makes wanted list
The Tainan Prosecutors Office put Tainan County Councilor Lin Feng-chun (林逢春) on the wanted list yesterday after he failed to respond to a warrant for his arrest last Tuesday. Lin has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for taking a bribe while serving as Gueiren Township (歸仁) head in 2001. Prosecutors said he requested leaves of absence when they tried to summon him on May 8 and on May 15. Both requests were rejected but he still failed to appear. The office said it did not issue an arrest warrant immediately because the Tainan City Council was holding an extraordinary session. The warrant was finally issued last Tuesday but Lin could not be found. Lin was convicted of taking a NT$300,000 bribe from the owner of an environmental sanitation company to allow a temporary worker to become a full-time employee and oversee the operation of a garbage dump in Gueiren.
■ DIPLOMACY
Hungarian group organized
A pro-Taiwan organization was inaugurated in Hungary on Sunday with the aim of boosting relations between the two countries. Gyorgy Ujlaky, a former Hungarian representative to Taiwan, was elected chairman of the Taiwan-Hungary Amity Association at the initial meeting. Ujlaky said that as a non-profit civic organization, the association would do everything possible to increase civic exchanges between the two countries. He congratulated President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on his inauguration. Representative to Hungary Kao Shuo-tai (高碩泰) thanked Ujlaky for his untiring efforts to set up the association. “The establishment of the civic body has great significance at a moment when Taiwan is striding toward a brand new and brilliant future,” he said. The ceremony was attended by more than 100 people, including Hungary-based Taiwanese manufacturers and officials from Taiwan’s representative office.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
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