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Taiwan quick take

Weather: Lusa upgraded to typhoon
The Central Weather Bureau announced yesterday that tropical storm Lusa had been upgraded to a typhoon and might affect Taiwan in two days. The bureau said that Typhoon Lusa is currently located about 2,400km east of Taiwan and is moving west-northwest at 23kph. Since Lusa is still far away, it is unclear just how much impact the typhoon will have on Taiwan, forecasters said. They noted that typhoons often hit Taiwan between July and September and that the public needs to be on guard. The last two typhoons to hit Taiwan were Rammasun and Nakri, which struck on July 2 and July 9 respectively, but caused no major damage.

Crime: Suspected murderer caught
Police have arrested a man for the murder and rape of a 78-year-old woman in Taitung City last week. Chiang Kang-wei (江康偉), a 29-year-old man who lived near the woman, admitted to the crimes on Sunday night during interrogation, police said. Tests concluded that Chiang's semen matched samples collected from the body of the woman, police said. The woman was found dead in a bush near a hypermarket in the city on Monday last week. Chiang, who allegedly suffers from paranoia, told police that the woman was wearing a broad-brimmed rain hat with her face covered when he saw her near the bush. Chiang said he became sexually aroused and grabbed the woman, thinking she was younger than she actually was, police said. He killed the woman after she started struggling by hitting her head with a rock, according to the police.

Power plant: Panel to present report
A panel of legislators probing alleged corruption by fellow lawmakers regarding sloppy construction work at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is expected to submit a report of its investigation to the legislature's Discipline Committee on Friday. Panel members, however, said the report will only include facts that the panel has discovered so far and does not mean the investigation has been completed, as prosecutors are still looking into the case. The panel will be reshuffled after the next legislative session starts in September. The controversy surfaced in mid-June when TSU Legislator Su Ying-kwei (蘇盈貴) claimed that fellow lawmakers from the DPP had pressured the state-run Taiwan Power Co to award contracts for construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant to a favored firm. Su said he had evidence, provided by China Shipbuilding Corp (中船), the government-owned company responsible for the project's reactor pedestals, to back up his charges.

Labor: Health-fee hike protested
To protest against the Cabinet's decision to raise national health insurance premiums, eight workers' unions have called their members out onto the streets of Taipei today. The unions claim that some 30,000 to 50,000 workers from around the nation will attend today's demonstration. The protesters plan to march to the DPP's headquarters, Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office. These unions have been angered by the government's decision to raise the insurance premium effective Sept. 1, arguing that the government should find a long-term solution for the program's deficit instead of increasing the burden on workers. Several opposition lawmakers have said they will also attend and have called on the public to stop paying the insurance premiums from Sept.1.

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