TRANSPORTATION
Taichung MRT line tested
A seven-day trial of the Green Line of the Taichung MRT system has been completed successfully ahead of its official launch next year, the city’s Transportation Bureau said yesterday. The trial run, which was conducted between 6am and midnight from July 1 through Thursday, was to ensure that the driverless system was stable along the 16.71km line, bureau director-general Yeh Chao-fu (葉昭甫) said. However, the bureau said that it has been looking for ways to improve the system’s sound insulation after people complained about noise during the test run. The Green Line, which has been under construction since 2009, has 18 stations, one of which is to connect to the Taichung high-speed rail station, while three others are to connect to stations along the Taiwan Railways Administration’s Taichung line, the bureau said. The Taichung MRT has a Blue Line that runs through 18 stations along a 26.2km route. It would be extended in the future, in keeping with the city’s transportation expansion plans, the bureau said.
ENTERTAINMENT
Kinmen music festival a hit
The Kinmen Summer Music Festival featuring popular singers and bands wrapped up four days of festivities on Friday. After the success of last year’s Quemoy International Music Festival, the Kinmen Tourism Department decided to hold another four-day music event at Houhu Seashore Park in Jinning Township (金寧) from Tuesday to Friday. This year, the festivities included performances by singer-songwriter Christine Fan (范瑋琪), who has a following of more than 3 million on Facebook. The venue also featured several young bands, such as Suitcase, known for their Indie rock music, and Candy Kinmen Girls, a dance group formed by local schoolchildren. The concert was held from 7pm to 9:30pm each night, and included performances by street performers, as well as water slides, magic shows and fireworks. A highlight this year was an aerial light show created by drones that included puzzle images and the sentence “I Love Kinmen.” The cartoon fixtures that were put on Houhu beach (後湖) for the festival will remain there for people to take pictures until Sept. 2, the department said.
CRIME
Egyptian charged with arson
An Egyptian man was on Friday arrested and charged with arson after allegedly starting a fire in a night market in Kaohsiung. The man, who has a food stand in Kaohsiung’s Rueifong Night Market (瑞豐夜市), allegedly poured gasoline along an alleyway and set it on fire, police said, citing eyewitnesses. According to the eyewitnesses, the man was shouting curses as he ran from the scene, the Kaohsiung City Police Department said. After the incident was reported to the police at about 2am, firefighters rushed to the scene, but the fire had died down and there were no injuries, the department said. The police searched Zuoying District (左營), where the night market is located, and found the suspect at a convenience store, the department said. The man said he was upset because other vendors had been trying to force him out of the night market, police said. The suspect was arrested, questioned and handed over to the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office, police said. Earlier, the Chinese-language United Daily News had cited the man’s business partner as saying the two lit the fire after seeing a large number of cockroaches on the ground while they were closing the stall.
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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