Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday ordered the National Police Agency to work closely with prosecutors to catch the mastermind behind recent allegations of game-fixing in professional baseball.
“It grieves the public to see these repeated occurrences of gambling in professional baseball games. Throwing a game is ... an act of cheating and failure to differentiate between right and wrong,” Wu was quoted by Cabinet Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) as saying.
Wu made the remarks at a closed-door Cabinet-level meeting held regularly to review the government's performance in maintaining public order.
During the same meeting, Minister of the Interior (MOI) Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said law enforcement officials would also prioritize implementing the newly amended Statute for Narcotics Hazard Control (毒品危害防制條例), which imposes heavier penalties on drug users, as well as measures against bicycle theft.
The ministry said that the number of reported bicycle thefts in the first three quarters of this year reached 2,843 — a 19.1 percent increase over the same period last year. Of those, 1,450 were recovered.
One of the anti-theft measures calls for bicycle producers to etch a serial number on each bicycle and for retailers to keep records of buyers to establish a bicycle registration database, the ministry said.
The ministry also reported that a third-quarter survey showed that only 36.37 percent of the public was satisfied with public order, an increase of 9.04 percentage points from the previous quarter.
The survey also showed that 14.6 percent of the public considered violent crimes a serious issue, down 4 points from the previous quarter; 29.26 percent said theft was a serious problem, down 3.05 points; and 44.39 percent expressed concern over the seriousness of fraud cases, down 6.43 points.
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