Wed, Jun 16, 2010 page3

• Taiwan News Quick Take

  • STAFF WRITER, WITH AGENCIES
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  ■ POLITICS

  Professor appointed to KMT

  Lin Te-jui (林德瑞), a professor of economic law at National Chung Cheng University, will take over as a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice deputy ­secretary-general to assist the party’s election campaign in southern Taiwan. Lin, who represented the party in the Chiayi legislator by-election last year, was recommended by KMT ­Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) to assist with handling party assets and November’s five special municipality elections. King has also asked Lin to establish mechanism to review the finance of local branches. King said Lin had a great reputation in Chiayi as a person with integrity despite his loss in the by-election. The party expects Lin to use his understanding of the political situation in the south to help the party gain more support during November’s election in Tainan and Kaohsiung, he said. The KMT currently has two deputy secretary-generals, Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭) and Juan Kang-meng (阮剛猛).

  ■ NATURE

  Three quakes rattle east

  Hualien County residents were startled by three earthquakes yesterday morning. Statistics from the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) showed that a magnitude 4.8 foreshock occurred at 1:17am, with the epicenter located 1km southeast of the CWB’s observatory in Hsiulin (秀林), Hualien County. The foreshock occurred at a depth of 19.5km. The main earthquake, of magnitude 5.6, occurred at 8:31am. The epicenter was also located in Hsiulin. The largest intensity was felt in Hualien, Yilan and Nantou counties, which were magnitude 4. A magnitude 4.1 aftershock occurred in Hsiulin again at 8:33am, at a depth of 17.3km. The largest intensity — magnitude 2 — was recorded in Hualien and Nantou. Kuo Kai-wen (郭鎧紋), director of the bureau’s seismology center, said the earthquakes were a normal release of energy and would not generate many aftershocks.

  ■ MILITARY

  Navy searches for torpedo

  The Taiwanese Navy is offering a cash reward to any fisherman who finds a torpedo its sailors lost during a drill last week, the military said yesterday. The offer follows four days of intense but futile searching in the area around the Tsoying base in Kaohsiung, the navy said in a statement. Any fisherman who snares the German-built SUT torpedo will scoop up NT$30,000, it said. This was the second time submariners aboard the Dutch-made Hai Lung, or Sea Dragon, had lost a torpedo. In 2003 the missing weapon washed ashore.

  ■ DIPLOMACY

  Ma praises Burkina Faso

  President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) praised Burkina Faso yesterday for its support for the “Lamp for Africa” lighting project that Taiwan is promoting there to benefit schoolchildren. Ma told visiting Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Bedouma Alain Yoda that he was moved by Burkina Faso’s participation in the program, which will distribute 1,000 LED lighting kits to schoolchildren. “The LED lighting kits will allow at least 1,000 schoolchildren to read at their home at night, instead of reading outdoors under street lights,” Ma said. Students there will be given an LED lighting kit equipped with a rechargeable battery that lasts four-and-a-half hours. The lighting kit was developed by the Central Taiwan Vocational Training Center. Ma told Yoda that he was also deeply moved by a Burkinabe student because of his fluency in Mandarin.
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