Taiwan vice rail chief arrested for taking bribes

TAIPEI (AFP) - The deputy director general of Taiwan's state Railway Administration and five employees were arrested on Thursday for allegedly taking bribes in connection with several procurement cases, a prosecutor said.

Chung Chao-hsiung and the others were suspected of taking unspecified amounts of kickbacks from at least two contractors in the projects, which had budgets totalling about NT$300 million (S$12.5 million), the prosecutor said.

Taiwan's Apple Daily newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying that Chung had also received sexual services paid for by the contractors to leak bidding information, a claim prosecutors declined to comment on.

Taiwan has been rocked by a string of high-profile corruption cases involving top officials, prompting the government to set up a special anti-corruption body last year.