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.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
NEW DESTINATIONS: Marketing campaigns to attract foreign travelers have to change from the usual promotions about Alishan and Taroko Gorge, the transport minister said The number of international tourists visiting Taiwan is estimated to top 8 million by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday, adding that the ministry has not changed its goal of attracting 10 million foreign travelers this year. Chen made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief lawmakers about the ministry’s plan to boost foreign visitor arrivals. Last month, Chen told the committee that the nation might attract only 7.5 million tourists from overseas this year and that when the ministry sets next year’s goal, it would not include