Chiang Chi-wei, 38, told police Nov 8 that he had been attacked by two taiwan men who chopped off his left hand in Chunghe, a satellite city of Taipei.

Police became suspicious because the wound on Chiang’s arm was smooth and blood stains were concentrated in one area on the ground.

Investigation showed that Chiang was in debt and had bought insurance policies worth 24 million Taiwan dollars from a dozen companies.

Last week, police arrested two men who claimed that Chiang had hired them to knock him unconscious and chop off his left hand. A farmer found Chiang’s severed hand Friday and handed it to police.

Chiang turned himself in to police Friday and was turned over for prosecution Saturday.

“He said his company ran into deep debts, so he hired the two men to chop off his hand to collect insurance policies to pay off debts,” Chang Meng-lin, head of the Chunghe Police Station said.

Crazy Taiwan Man !

Taiwan hotel collapsed by typhoon Morakot

A hotel in southern Taiwan has collapsed after flood waters from Typhoon Morakot undermined its foundations.

The hotel in Chihpen, one of the country’s most famous hot spring resorts, is believed to have been completely evacuated before it collapsed.

Taiwan Prostitute Issue

Sex workers in Taiwan have cautiously welcomed a government plan to legalise prostitution, but the scheme is being opposed by an alliance of women’s groups who fear it will breed crime and violence.

A red-light area similar to Amsterdam’s famed canalside sex-for-sale district has been proposed for the capital Taipei, with legal and zoning measures due in place within six months.

Prostitutes and their supporters say they see a ray of hope after many years of campaigning for legalisation to protect them from both customers and police, but some are concerned about being moved into special zones.

“I hope the government will allow us to stay where we are and give us legal protection,” said one prostitute who wanted to be identified as Hsiao-feng. “I don’t want to move to a new place to start again.”

Hsiao-feng earns a living in Taipei’s Wanhua district, which is believed to be home to thousands of sex workers plying their trade illegally even though prostitution was outlawed in the city in 1997.

“Who wants to have red-light districts near homes?” she asks. “The government would have to put us in the mountains but then we can’t make a living because nobody wants to travel that far.”

Observers say paid-for sex remains big business and the ban has driven it underground, where brothels operate under euphemistic names such as tea houses, massage parlours, clubs and even skin-care salons.

There are also women known as “liu ying” or “floating orioles” — a metaphor for flirtatious and seductive women — who find patrons on the streets.

There is no official record on the scale of Taiwan’s sex industry but the advocacy group Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (COSWAS) estimates that it involves 400,000 people and is worth 60 billion Taiwan dollars (1.8 billion US) a year.

“Right now we are helpless when customers don’t pay, or even rob or hurt us,” Hsiao-feng told AFP.

“We have to watch out for the police and their informants because we can end up in prison if caught.”

Prostitutes face three days in detention or a fine of up to 30,000 Taiwan dollars if arrested, while their clients go unpunished.

“The government should protect sex workers’ human rights and stop treating them like criminals,” says COSWAS chief Chung Chun-chu. “It should allow a blanket decriminalisation to regulate the sex trade.”

The public is divided on the issue, with 42.3 percent supporting the plan to legalise prostitution while 38.8 percent oppose it and the rest are undecided, according to a poll by the local China Times.

Arielle Su, an elementary school teacher in Taipei, says legalising the sex trade cuts both ways.

“I think it can help prevent sex crimes as some people have needs and they would prey on the general public if they are unsatisfied,” she said. “But as a mother and a teacher I am also concerned that it would corrupt morals.”

A dozen local women’s groups have formed an alliance against legalising prostitution, warning that it would encourage crime and injustice against women.

“We oppose making prostitution a legal industry because it fosters sexual violence and exploitation of women,” said Chi Hui-jung, head of The Garden of Hope Foundation.

Chi pointed out that the Dutch authorities were reducing the size of Amsterdam’s red-light district due to concern over criminal activities such as human smuggling and money laundering.

“The government should offer welfare programmes and job incentives to women so they won’t go into prostitution out of economic desperation,” Chi said.

Hsiao-feng, a 45-year-old divorcee, says it is difficult for street walkers like her, with little education or job skills, to find regular work.

“I don’t like what I do for a living but I have to raise my children and pay the bills. I don’t regret becoming a Taiwan sex worker. I just hope the government will protect my safety so I am not always at the mercy of others,” she said.

source: AFP

Tunghai University in central Taiwan blackmailed with water poisoning

Tunghai University in Taichung City received blackmails Thursday and Friday with water poisoning threats. The Taichung City police had retrieved fingerprints on blackmailing letter to look for the suspect.

Tunghai University phoned the police upon discovering a blackmailing letter at the door of the President’s Office on Thursday. A phone call was made by an unidentified male on Friday morning to the school, threatening to put poison in campus water. The school immediately shut down the water source.

The blackmailer demanded NT$5 million in cash and 50 taels of gold (about 1850 grams) from the university in the letter with a threat to throw chlorine bomb, which is lethal when dissolved in water or in air. A design sketch of chlorine bomb is attached with the letter to prove the blackmailer’s bomb-making ability, said the police.

The police indicated that the blackmailer asked the school to transport the cash to Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium by school bus and place the gold on the ceiling of the first-floor toilet of an office building in Central Taiwan Science Park. He also told Tunghai University in letter to inform other universities in Taichung City to each remit NT$80,000 into a designated account, or will face the same intimidation.

Tunghai shut down the water supply Friday morning and had all water towers examined by the Environmental Protection Department of the city government. Tseng Hua-yuan, chief secretary of the university, said they had emptied all standpipes for sample taking, and once no abnormality was recoded in examination, the water supply will resume step by step.

Tseng said the school will reinforce patrols by security guards and make a request to the police that plainclothesmen be stationed on campus.

Taiwan Water Corporation dispatched two water trucks in the afternoon to supply 10 tons of water to school cafeterias and dormitories. The University is slated to end water supply until next Monday.

by Taiwan News, Staff Writer