The Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement yesterday it would investigate whether corruption or negligence were responsible for the public infrastructure breakdown that led to flash flooding and serious property damage during Tropical Storm Kalmaegi last week.
Officials said the investigation would focus on the role of human agency in the toll from the storm, which hit the nation on Thursday, causing serious damage to public infrastructure, including roads, bridges and embankments.
As of yesterday, 20 people had been confirmed dead from flooding and landslides after the storm pelted central and southern areas with heavy rain. Agricultural losses were estimated at more than NT$1.05 billion (US$34.57 million).
Prosecutors and police will examine whether the breakdowns were caused by shoddy work resulting from fraud or negligence in the public sector, at construction companies, or from gangster activity, the statement said.
Land overexploitation will also be a focus of the investigation.
The Taiwan High Prosecutors Office said the probes were in response to reports suggesting that irregularities may have occurred and denied they were the result of specific tipoffs.
Meanwhile, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) has asked the Central Weather Bureau to submit a report within a week on its plans to improve the accuracy of its weather forecasts.
Liu made the request at a meeting late on Monday to review the Cabinet’s response to Kalmaegi.
Liu asked Minister Without Portfolio Chang Jin-fu (張進福) to invite specialists and weather bureau officials to discuss means by which to improve weather forecasts.
The Cabinet would provide financial assistance and manpower to help local governments upgrade their flood prevention systems, Minister of the Interior Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) quoted Liu as saying.
City and county governments can earmark funds from the recently approved special budgets allocated for local infrastructure projects and use the money to fund emergency responses to storm-related disasters and reconstruction work in disaster areas, Liao said.
At the meeting, Liu also requested the creation of a special taskforce to address poor communication among the different government agencies in charge of water, land and forests, which he said hampers effective disaster prevention.
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
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
RSS