■ Crime
Bomb found in Ta-an Park
A home-made bomb and a note urging the government to ban rice imports were discovered yesterday morning at Ta-an Forest Park in Taipei. Police said the bomb, which was powerful enough to kill a person, was in a box and beside the box was a note, saying "Do not import rice. The government should take care of the people." The police said the box and the note were placed in a public toilet. On the box was another note, saying: "This is a bomb. Do not touch the button." The police said they have collected fingerprints and other clues.
■ Cross-strait ties
China hurt our feelings: MAC
The Mainland Affairs Council has warned China that its strong criticism of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) recent US visit was "mistaken behavior" that hurts the feelings of the Taiwanese people. Speaking to reporters in Beijing, Li Weiyi (李維一), a spokesman for the Chinese Cabinet's Taiwan Affairs Office, said Chen's brief visits to New York and Alaska this month were part of the his plan to ``split China, to sabotage Sino-US relations.'' Li warned that if Chen "continues, he will bring disaster to our Taiwanese compatriots." The council said in a statement late Wednesday that it "strongly regretted" Li's comments. "Communist China is aggravating the feelings on the two sides and hurting the Taiwanese people's feelings," the statement said. It "urged Communist China to immediately stop this mistaken behavior."
■ Judicial Yuan
Legislators reject budget
Legislators yesterday rejected the next year's budget for the Judicial Yuan, saying the spending plan was illegal. The opposition-controlled Judiciary Committee voted to send back the budget because the lawmakers said the outlays were based upon the restructuring outlined in the proposed revision of the Organic Law of the Judicial Yuan (司法院組織法). That revision has not been passed by the legislature. The committee ruled that the Judicial Yuan must remake its spending plan according to the existing judiciary structure -- even though Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers' protested the move. The DPP legislators accused the committee convener, People First Party Legislator Chin Huei-chu (秦慧珠), of dereliction of duty. "The convener failed to fulfill her duty. She ignored the request for a second vote from DPP lawmakers and instead adjourned the meeting without handling the vote request. The resolution should be invalid," said DPP Legislator Lai Ching-te (賴清德).
■ Veterans affairs
Call for end to subsidies
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Cheng Kuo-chung (鄭國忠) said yesterday that he will propose a revision of the law to ban veterans who settle overseas to claim support subsidies. Cheng said that there are 5,670 veterans currently living in China who are claiming the support subsidy, which has resulted in the government remitting more than NT$900 million (US$26.47 million) a year to China. Cheng said that there are around 540,000 veterans in Taiwan, and that 105,000 of them are eligible to claim support subsidies according to the statistics of the Veterans Affairs Commission. After the Statute Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area(台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) was revised in 1997, veterans who had traveled to China to live could claim the support subsidies from overseas.
The donation of offshore patrol vessel Kinmen to the Philippines includes provisions that protect Taiwanese fishers and facilitate security cooperation across the First Island Chain, officials said yesterday. The comment was made during the Cabinet’s comprehensive administrative report at the legislature after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) expressed concerns about the decision to give a ship to a country whose coast guard had in 2013 fired on a Taiwanese trawler and killed its captain without provocation. The Cabinet should lay out the safeguards that have been established to prevent the Philippine government from using the Kinmen to harass, expel
‘FRIENDSHIP FLEET’: A CGA official is scheduled to meet with the president of the Pacific nation, while one of the ships is to host a banquet and National Day event Two Coast Guard Administration (CGA) patrol vessels have docked at Malakal Harbor in Palau as part of an expedition exercise and diplomatic visit, during which a senior official is expected to meet with Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr, the agency said yesterday. The two vessels, the 4,000-tonne-class Chiayi and the 1,000-tonne-class Penghu, set sail for Palau from Taiwan last week and arrived on Tuesday at Malakal Harbor, the CGA’s Fleet Branch said in a statement. The journey marks the second time the CGA has dispatched a “friendship fleet” to another country, after it sent its first-ever goodwill fleet, comprising the Hualien and
A patrol vessel donated by the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) to the Philippines was commissioned into the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Friday, a Philippine non-governmental organization said. The CGA on Sept. 16 confirmed media reports that Taiwan had donated a retired 500-tonne patrol vessel to the Philippines. The Manila-based We Protect Our Seas (WPS) foundation, which served as an intermediary in the transfer, said that the vessel was formerly the CGA’s 500-tonne petrol vessel Kinmen (CG123). The WPS, in a statement issued on Friday, said the vessel, renamed as the BRP Sarangani, had been commissioned into the PCG the
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) today said that two of its patrol vessels have docked at Palau's Malakal Harbor as part of an expedition exercise and diplomatic visit, during which a senior official is expected to meet with the Palauan president. The two vessels, the 4,000-tonne-class Chiayi (嘉義) and the 1,000-tonne-class Penghu (澎湖), set sail for Palau from Taiwan last week and arrived at Malakal Harbor yesterday, the CGA's Fleet Branch said in a statement. The journey marked the second time the CGA has dispatched a "Friendship Fleet" to another country, after it sent its first-ever goodwill fleet, comprising the Hualien (花蓮)
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