The government-run petroleum company CPC Corp. Taiwan said yesterday it will appeal a ruling of the Kaohsiung City Government that accused the company of violating regulations to discharge untreated wastewater.

Kaohsiung prosecutors yesterday demanded a seven-year prison sentence for Yeh Kuan-heng (葉冠亨), whose drunk driving cost a total of three lives in late April. The incident led to public outrage and calls for stricter punishments for drunk drivers.

President Ma Ying-jeou said Friday he hopes the Port of Kaohsiung can work toward becoming Taiwan's first showcase free economic zone to help drive the country's economic growth.

A Kaohsiung City government official was detained yesterday on suspicion of corruption, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office said.

A major explosion at a CPC Corp., Taiwan plant in Kaohsiung has caused local residents to worry about their safety and disrupted the local petrochemical supply chain.

After the rise of fuel prices on April 2, the number of passengers riding the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit system has jumped to over 10,000 more than the figure for the same period of March. The Kaohsiung bus service also saw an increase of 5,000 passengers per day over the past few days.

The Esperanza, one of the flagships of the Greenpeace environmental protection group, arrived in Kaohsiung Harbor in southern Taiwan on Friday on a mission to promote marine conservation.

A Taiwan bird watcher spotted Tuesday a one legged black-faced spoonbill, dubbed “Life Fighter,” at Tainan County's Tsengwen River estuary for the ninth consecutive year.

Prosecutors in Kaohsiung yesterday sought to void the election of two legislators in the Jan. 14 elections and indicted nine others in two separate alleged vote-buying cases.

The auction of portions of the 85 Building in Kaohsiung City and a land parcel in the region again ended in failure yesterday, as the sole bidder made offers that were lower than the properties' base prices.