Coast Guard Administration (CGA) officers yesterday arrested eight female foreign nationals in Yunlin County on suspicion of offering sexual services at a karaoke bar.
The CGA said in a press statement that its officers busted a criminal group on April 25 that arranged for Vietnamese women to enter Taiwan and engage in prostitution.
CGA officers arrested 21 Vietnamese on suspicion of engaging in prostitution at the time and discovered the group had also arranged for other foreign nationals to work as prostitutes at hostess bars around the county.
Posing as customers, several CGA officers yesterday morning visited a karaoke bar. The officers revealed their true identities after the hostesses took off their clothes and began dancing naked in front of them while playing sex games.
The officers used hidden cameras to film the foreign hostesses as evidence of their actions.
The officers arrested four Vietnamese women and four Indonesian women at the bar.
However, while law officials are busy cracking down on illegal activities at hostess bars, prosecutors remain at odds over whether bar hostesses that offer sexual services in private rooms are breaking the law.
The debate emerged earlier this month, after a Miaoli prosecutor decided not to indict four foreign bar hostesses for playing sex games with their customers while in a private KTV room.
Miaoli prosecutors said that because the bar hostesses were in a private room when dancing naked, they had not committed public indecency.
The prosecutor said that the clause defines indecent behavior in public as behavior seen by unrelated individuals. But since the bar's private rooms are considered private places, the four Vietnamese hostesses therefore did not commit public indecency.
In other cases hostesses have been indicted for offering sexual services in private KTV rooms.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
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