National Police Agency Director-General Hou You-yi (
Hou made the comments during a Legislative Yuan question-and-answer session in response to questions from a group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers who were concerned that demonstrating leniency would deal a blow to public order and asserted that most rank-and-file policemen were opposed to the idea.
Under instructions from President Chen Shui-bian (
Hou said that the agency had not conducted polls to gauge the opinions of grass-roots policemen and said that he would not oppose reduced terms for those convicted of minor offenses carrying a sentence of less than one year.
But Hou added that in his capacity as the police officer in charge of maintaining the rule of law and public order across the country, he would "object" to the proposed amnesty if it were to include those convicted of violent offenses.
"Granting amnesty must not affect public order or social morals," he said, adding that "we would clarify our position and offer recommendations if the there were a chance that the proposed amnesty might affect public order."
At a separate event yesterday, Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (
The Ministry of Justice said the draft bill would only cut sentences for criminals serving time for minor offenses, adding that it would not commute capital sentences to life sentences or include those convicted of serious crimes and crimes that endanger society.
Crimes involving the sex trade and special financial crimes would also be excluded, it added.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai