■ 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.
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
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
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,
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