■ Weather
CWB monitoring Meari
The Central Weather Bureau is closely monitoring Typhoon Meari, which is now a medium typhoon, bureau sources reported yesterday. The bureau is not expected to issue any warnings for Meari before tomorrow. Meari, the 21st typhoon reported in the Pacific area this year, was centered about 1,900km southeast of Taiwan at 8am yesterday with a radius of 150km. It was moving northwesterly toward Taiwan at a speed of 16kph and packing maximum sustained winds of up to 118kph, forecasters said. The bureau also warned that the first cold front from the north this year has arrived, lowering temperatures and bringing showers.
■ Crime
Hundreds of thefts unsolved
There are 183 unsolved burglary cases involving NT$400 million (US$11.83 million) from the last five years in Taipei, Taipei City Councillor Wang Hao (王浩) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday during a question-and-answer session at Taipei City Council. He said that police stations in the Taan, Sungshan, and Neihu districts have the most unsolved cases. There were 73 major burglaries involving NT$144 million in the Taan district, including a burglary at the dormitory of the America Institute in Taiwan. He questioned whether police have only focused on major criminal cases and neglected burglaries.
■ Cross-strait ties
Illegal migrants repatriated
A group of 131 illegal Chi-nese immigrants, including a dozen infants, were repatriated from Matsu yes-terday with the assistance of the Red Cross Societies on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. They were the last batch of illegal immigrants to be sent home before the Mid-Autumn Festival next Tuesday. There are still 79 illegal immigrants at the Matsu center and the number of illegals held at detention centers awaiting repatriation exceeds 2,000.
■ Defense
Pingtung plant hosts drill
A nuclear safety drill was held in Pingtung County yesterday, simulating radia-tion leaks from a nuclear plant, terrorist attacks and sabotage by Chinese agents. The exercise was staged at the Second Nuclear Power Plant complex by the Atomic Energy Council (AEC), Taiwan Power Co and the county government. "The drill covered a vast area of five kilometers surrounding the plant as this year's focus is damage control in the event of a radiation leak," said a council official. The army's chemical warfare troops fought off mock terrorist attacks while coast guard officers searched for purported Chinese agents hiding in the facility.
■ Diplomacy
MOFA dismisses report
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday dismissed a media report that the gov-ernment will contribute US$40 million over a 20 year period to a US-backed trust fund for the Marshall Islands. "We have not yet come to a conclusion although we're indeed studying the possi-bility," said ministry spokes-man Michel Lu (呂慶龍),referring to a report quoting the Pacific nation's Foreign Minister Gerald Zackios. Zackios said that Taiwan had agreed to give US$1 million annually until 2009, and then increase the amount to US$2.4 million annually through 2023. The trust fund's goal is to replace US grant funding when the compact ends in 2023. Tai-wan and the Marshall Islands have had diplomatic ties since 1998.
■ Tourism
Delegation heads to Tokyo
A delegation of Taiwanese travel agents and hotel, amusement park and museum operators will take part in the JATA World Travel Fair 2004 to open later this week in Japan to promote Taiwan's tourism, Tourism Bureau officials said yesterday. The fair, which runs from today until Sunday in Tokyo, is the largest travel exhibition in Asia. It attracted approximately 100,000 visitors and exhibitors last year. The 58-member delegation will be led by Michael Sheu, deputy director-general of the Tourism Bureau. To highlight the unique characteristics of Taiwan, an Aboriginal cultural troupe will perform songs and dances at the event, and there will also be demonstrations of paper umbrella painting and silhouette cutting.
■ Statistics
Salaries fell in July
Taiwanese workers earned an actual average salary of NT$35,010 (US$1,034) in July, down by 0.08 percent compared with the previous year and marking the first fall in 24 years, according to the latest statistics released yesterday. The statistics compiled by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) show that Taiwan's workers in the industrial and service sectors had an average income of NT$40,015 (US$1,176) in July. The first decline in the actual salary growth rate is an indication that the pace of product price hikes has outstripped that of salary increases for average workers, making them further feel the pinch of reduced earnings despite an apparent economic recovery, DGBAS officials said. Even worse, average per capita working hours rose to 189.9 hours for July, an increase of 6.8 hours over the June average.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
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