The Keelung District Court yesterday ruled that the detention of Keelung City Council Speaker Huang Ching-tai (黃景泰), who is running for mayor, is to be extended for another two months.
Huang, who decided to run as an independent after the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) retracted his candidacy, has been held incommunicado since Sept. 5 on suspicion of violating the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) by accepting bribes and withdrawing public funds without authorization and with an intent to profit.
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office on Monday requested an extension to Huang’s detention and the motion was approved by the court yesterday.
More than 100 supporters gathered outside the court to call for Huang’s release, accusing the judiciary of carrying out unjust rulings.
The KMT withdrew its support for Huang’s mayoral bid on July 9, after he came under investigation for corruption, and nominated former National Immigration Agency director-general Hsieh Li-kung (謝立功) to represent it in the election instead.
Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan yesterday said that an extension of the planned Taipei Mass Rapid Transist (MRT) system’s Minsheng-Xizhi line to Keelung is a more feasible option than extending the Nangang line.
The possible extension was mentioned in an announcement the Executive Yuan made in which it stated its wish to “accelerate the MRT Minsheng-Xizhi line project,” which had its feasibility evaluation research ratified by the executive branch in 2011.
In the statement, the Executive Yuan cited Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) as saying that while Keelung residents wish to have their city connected to Taipei by the MRT system, “there are objective difficulties to extending the Nangang line eastward to Keelung.”
“However, there is room for evaluating if the link can be made through the extension of the Minsheng-Xizhi line,” Jiang said.
The announcement drew speculation that it had been fashioned as a support-boosting move for Hsieh’s election bid, because the KMT candidate has been advocating extending the Minsheng-Xizhi line to Keelung, while Democratic Progressive Party candidate Lin You-chang (林右昌) has been calling for the extending the Nangang line.
According to a report by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), at an Oct. 1 KMT meeting, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) asked Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時), who is a member of the KMT standing committee, to “wolf down [meaning to take responsibility for]” Hsieh’s transportation policy, which includes initiating construction on the MRT extension to Keelung within the next four years.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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