In light of serious misuse of the 110 police emergency call system by the public, legislators are working toward introducing penalties to try to deter such practices, the Chinese-language United Evening News reported yesterday.
Democratic Progressive Party legislators Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) and Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱), and People First Party Legislator Chen Yi-chieh (陳怡潔) have launched an initiative to amend the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) to impose detention of up to three days or a fine of up to NT$12,000 for people who misuse the system, the report said.
Misuse of the 119 fire-related emergency call system is punishable by a maximum fine of NT$15,000. Spurious 110 calls are not currently subject to punishment.
Citing statistics from the National Police Agency, Chen was quoted as saying that the 110 emergency services received more than 6.2 million calls last year, nearly 50 percent of which were harassing in nature or simply made for inquiry purposes.
Between May and December last year, there were 131,875 calls from “people with mental disorders,” 130,876 harassing calls, 18,081 calls from “drunk people” and 1,025 hoax calls, she said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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