■ Weather
Typhoon on its way
Typhoon Imbudo, moving in a westerly direction from Guam, is forecast to affect local weather patterns directly or indirectly from Tuesday until Friday, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. The bureau said there was a good chance that Imbudo would make a direct hit on Taiwan island and that it would bring heavy rain to eastern Taiwan on Tuesday. The weather will remain cloudy and hot throughout the country over the weekend, with temperatures reaching 35?C in northern Taiwan and 34?C in central and southern Taiwan. There will be scattered showers and thunderstorms in mountainous areas over the next two days, according to weathermen.
■ Crime
Pizza brothel raided
Taipei police have cracked a brothel which used a pizza delivery service as a front and delivered prostitutes like pizza to clients, police said yesterday. "One of our policemen saw a tiny ad stuck on a roadside motorbike, saying: `Do you like pizza? You can eat it in our store, or we can deliver it to you.' There was also a telephone number," a policeman at the Chengchung Police Station said. "We thought it was suspicious and phoned them, and realized it was a brothel, so we raided it last night," he added. Police arrested four prostitutes, two clients and the manager. Prostitution is not illegal but brothels must be licensed. Underground brothels and advertising for custom is illegal.
■ Politics
Cabinet says no new taxes
The Executive Yuan has no intention for the time being of raising taxes to finance its many promises, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. In response to criticism that the administration of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is borrowing money to woo voters with pork-barrel politics, the Executive Yuan said its promises to raise pensions for farmers and to help local governments pay the lump-sum retirement payments for teachers will be financed from the government budget. These promises are actually the government's existing policies and the Executive Yuan is only reiterating these policies. The opposition's criticism that these promises were made to boost Chen's re-election bid is groundless, the Executive Yuan said.
■ Crime
Minister raids nightclub
Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲), National Police Administration (NPA) Director-General Chang Si-liang (張四良) and the NPA's Criminal Investigation Bureau Commissioner Hou You-yi (侯友宜) yesterday led a team of local police officers to raid the Lion King, the biggest nightclub in Taiwan. Yu, Chang and Hou arrived at the nightclub around 1am in a raid supposedly to search for Ecstasy. No illegal drugs were found at the scene, although the owner was fined NT$300,000 for violating the Architecture Law (建築法). The police said that the Lion King illegally tore down a wall inside the building which could compromise the structure during an earthquake. The owner of the nightclub was told to restore the wall within a month or the authorities would fine him again. With a dance floor big enough to accommodate 3,000 revellers, the Lion King has also been linked with Ecstasy use, although the police have never found any there. When Hou was Taoyuan County Police Department commissioner, he accompanied Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on a raid of the club on Aug. 3 last year.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
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