■ Iraq
Public prefers anti-war camp
Taiwanese tend to oppose the US-led war against Iraq but most still have a good impression of the US, according to a newspaper poll released yesterday. The survey by a Chinese-language newspaper, found that 37 percent of those polled did not support war with Iraq without UN approval. Some 28 percent supported the war, while the rest had no opinion. Despite ambivalence about the Iraq conflict, 67 percent of the respondents said they still have a good impression of the US. Thirteen percent had a "rather bad" impression and 4 percent a "very bad" impression, the survey said. The rest had no opinion. The telephone poll of 908 people, conducted on Monday, had a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.
■ Piracy
Police seize counterfeiters
Taiwan police seized 200,000 pirated music and video CDs Tuesday, including copies of the Oscar-winning films Chicago and The Hours. Acting on a tip, police seized the CDs and VCDs in a packaging house in Taiching, central Taiwan. They arrested Tai Chen-feng, 37, the suspected leader of the gang. "Most of the VCDs are porn films, but there are also Chicago and The Hours which won Oscar awards on Sunday," a police spokesman said. The ring sold the discs at night-markets, charging NT$60 for a film VCD and NT$400 for 10 music CDs, he said. The US has accused Taiwan of being one of the world's leading culprits in producing counterfeit goods.
■ Crime
Police bring fugitives back
Two fugitive criminal suspects were brought back to Taiwan from China via Matsu on Monday, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said. The two suspects, identified as Yang Chin-chien (楊進謙), 44, and Kuo Hung-ching (郭宏慶), 27, are wanted on fraud and extortion charges, CIB officials said, adding that the repatriation was part of cross-strait cooperation in fighting crime. Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation and the Red Cross Society chapters on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait assisted in arranging the deportation, the officials said.
■ Cross-strait ties
PLA status unchanged
China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has not shown any signs of conducting abnormal military activities or upgrading its combat readiness level, a Ministry of National Defense (MND) official said yesterday. MND spokesman Major General Huang Suey-sheng (黃穗生) made the remarks after a Hong Kong newspaper reported that Jiang Zemin (江澤民), chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, ordered the PLA to raise its combat readiness to the second highest level amid the US-led war in Iraq. "The report was not true," Huang said. "Our military intelligence shows that the PLA has not upgraded its combat readiness nor has it conducted any abnormal military activities," he pointed out.
■ Rally
DPP to join `Taiwan' march
The DPP announced yesterday it will join a rally on May 11 to rectify the country's name. The event is being organized by the "Alliance to Campaign for Rectifying the Name of Taiwan." The DPP said it shares the organization's desire to change the nation's title from Republic of China to Taiwan, adding it is willing to endorse the activity and provide necessary assistance.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner