In view of the high rate of theft of equipment used in agriculture and fisheries in the first eight months of this year, the government could adopt an imprint method to help prevent theft, an official said on Wednesday.
Joseph Chen (陳永豐), chief secretary of the Government Information Office, said that to reduce the theft rate, Minister of the Interior Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) has suggested a method patterned after the hot stamping of motorcycles.
Chen said the ministry has reached an agreement with the Council of Agriculture (COA) on the matter, and that the imprinting of equipment would be launched in major agricultural counties on a trial basis and later expanded to other areas.
A report on social law and order by National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Wang Cho-chun (王卓鈞) on Wednesday said that in the first eight months of this year, the number of criminal cases dropped from the same period last year, while the rate of crime solving increased. Overall, social law and order was improving, but the theft of equipment used on farms and fisheries was markedly increasing, Wang said.
NPA statistics showed that in the first eight months of the year, the number of reported thefts of farm equipment was 1,096 — an increase of 428 cases, or 64 percent, from the same period last year.
This type of theft is most prevalent in the counties of Changhua, Pingtung, Kaohsiung, Taichung and Yunlin, the NPA said.
Wang said that because of the soaring price of metal worldwide, small electric devices and machinery have become attractive to thieves. Most of the equipment is usually located in isolated areas such as fields, mountainous regions and along the seashore, which makes it easy for thieves to steal, he said.
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
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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