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.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
A New York-based NGO has launched a global initiative to rename the nation’s overseas missions, most of which operate under the name "Taipei," to "Taiwan Representative Office (TRO)," according to a news release. Ming Chiang (江明信), CEO of Hello Taiwan, announced the campaign at a news conference in Berlin on Monday, coinciding with the World Forum held from Monday through Wednesday, the institution stated in the release. Speaking at the event, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said she believed this renaming campaign would enable the international community to see Taiwan
DEFENSE: The US should cancel the US visas or green cards of relatives of KMT and TPP lawmakers who have been blocking the budget, Grant Newsham said A retired US Marine Corps officer has suggested canceling the US green cards and visas of relatives of opposition Taiwanese lawmakers who have been stalling the review of a proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget. The Executive Yuan has proposed the budget for major weapons purchases over eight years, from this year to 2033. However, opposition lawmakers have refused to review the proposal, demanding that President William Lai (賴清德) first appear before the Legislative Yuan to answer questions about the proposed budget. On Thursday last week, 37 bipartisan US lawmakers sent a letter to Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the heads
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