■ earthquakes
Twelve tremors hit nation
The nation was struck by 12 undersea earthquakes yesterday, including a powerful one in the east, but there were no reports of damage or casualties, the earthquake center said yesterday. The first quake, measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale occurred at 2:28am, shaking Taitung County. The second tremor struck 24 minutes later with a magnitude of 4.3 near Chengkung (成功) in Taitung, the center said. Ten other quakes, measuring more than 4 on the Richter scale, including one with a magnitude of 5.4 and another of 5.2, rocked the eastern county between 3:33am and 9:04am, it said. There were no reports of damage or casualties, the center and police said.
■ politics
Cabinet doesn’t need DPP
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday he did not think that the incoming Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration, which is a majority government, needed to recruit DPP members to the new Cabinet, emphasizing that cooperation between political parties should focus on policy. Hsieh made the remarks in response to a report published in yesterday’s Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) that DPP legislators had expressed reservations on the possible recruitment of Straits Exchange Foundation Vice Chairman Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌) to the new Cabinet. Dismissing the possibility as hypothetical, Hsieh said the question concerned personal desire and that his party would not begin considering such a possibility until the KMT administration officially made an announcement. Hong last night denied that he would join the new Cabinet, saying he would resign along with the other members of the current Cabinet before May 20.
■ crime
Fine, but no jail for Wu
The Tainan branch of the Taiwan High Court yesterday converted Tainan County Council Speaker Wu Chien-pao’s (吳健保) five-month jail sentence for gambling into a fine, adding that the verdict was not subject to appeal. A spokesperson for the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, which meted out the jail sentence on April 10, said the office found the verdict regrettable but respected it. Wu ran several gambling houses in Tainan County between 2004 and 2005. On one occasion, then Tainan County deputy council speaker Kuo Hsiu-chu (郭秀珠) lost more than NT$80 million during a 10-day period. Wu was indicted on gambling charges by Tainan prosecutors. The decision on a second appeal issued on Feb. 2 this year said that Wu could pay a fine instead of serving jail time. The Tainan Prosecutors’ Office, however, decided not to allow Wu to substitute the jail sentence for a fine of NT$137,700, and instead sent Wu directly to jail. Wu immediately filed an appeal, with the High Court ruling in favor of a fine.
■ politics
No invitation for Chen yet
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has not yet decided whether to attend president-elect Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration on May 20 because he has not received an invitation, the Presidential Office said yesterday. The Presidential Office issued a statement dismissing a recent TVBS report that claimed Chen had turned down the invitation because it was customary for Chen to do volunteer work on inauguration day. “There is considerable discrepancy between fact and the report,” the statement said. In response, Ma’s spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said yesterday that Ma’s office would send out the invitations, including Chen’s, after finalizing the guest list.
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
The government would cancel kendo practitioner Su Yu-cheng’s (蘇郁程) nationality if he is confirmed to have represented China in the World Kendo Championships in Milan, Italy, last week, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. “We have consulted the Sports Administration and were told that athletes participating in the championships must have the nationality of the country that they represent. They must also present their passports as proof,” council spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a weekly news conference. “If Su indeed represented China in the championships, we suspect that he has obtained Chinese nationality.” The Act Governing Relations Between the People of the
FATAL ILLNESS: Untreated symptoms can rapidly worsen to complications such as high fever, seizures and loss of consciousness, and can be life-threatening, a doctor said Hospitals have been reporting dozens of people with heat-related illnesses every day over the past week, given continuous high daytime temperatures, so recognizing the early signs of heatstroke is crucial in preventing serious complications, a Taipei City Hospital emergency physician said. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a heat alert for 19 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures in New Taipei City, Miaoli County and Pingtung County likely to exceed 38°C, and temperatures in 12 cities and counties likely to exceed 36°C for three days straight. More than a dozen people were taken to hospitals for heat-related illnesses every day from