COMMUNICATION:Participants said they wanted to increase understanding of the gay community among Christian groups amid efforts to legalize gay marriage

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 13, 2015
By: Lii Wen  /  Staff reporter, with CNA

Dozens of gay rights campaigners yesterday held a breakfast rally outside a church in Taipei

to show their desire to communicate with Christian groups in a peaceful manner.

Waving rainbow flags and chanting slogans, the campaigners handed out free meals to participants and passersby in front of the Taipei Truth Lutheran Church in Daan District (大安).

Led by the Taiwan International Association for Gay Rights, the campaigners invited supporters to write down messages on three rainbow-colored billboards, which were later accepted by a representative of the church.

Gay rights advocate Chen Chih-ming (陳志明) said that the group wished to foster understanding among Christian groups about the gay community, following disputes between the two sides over the past few years.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
2015/04/13 10:57:08
By: Lawrence Chiu and Jay Chen

Taipei, April 13 (CNA) Taiwan is unable to become one of the prospective founding members

of the China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a Chinese official said Monday without giving any reasons.

Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, quoted the AIIB’s Multilateral Interim Secretariat as confirming a press report that also said Taiwan could still become a member of the bank in the future.

The Taiwan Affairs Office reiterated China’s position that Taiwan would be welcomed to join the multilateral development institution “under an appropriate name.”

China believes that a way can be found for Taiwan to participate in the AIIB through practical consultations, the office added.     [FULL  STORY]

TIMING:The official said that the cause of the fatal accident, a steel girder, should only have been hoisted between 11:30pm and 5:30am

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 13, 2015
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The contractor on Taichung’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) construction project violated regulations before a fatal accident occurred at the construction site, a local government official said yesterday.

Taichung Transportation Bureau Director-General Wang Yi-chuan (王義川) said contractors are required to give notice of their construction work at least three days in advance, but Far Eastern Construction Co began hoisting a steel girder on an elevated section of Taichung MRT’s Green Line on Friday afternoon, three days ahead of schedule.

The contractor sent faxes at about 3pm on Friday to eight local agencies, including the Transportation Bureau, to notify them that the steel girder would be hoisted between 4pm and 8pm the same day, the official said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/12
By: Yiu Kai-hsiang and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, April 12 (CNA) Police have arrested 39 suspects as part of a crackdown jointly launched by authorities in Taiwan, mainland China and Indonesia on a cross-border fraud ring based on Bali Island.

These suspects, including five Chinese nationals, were sent back to Taiwan aboard two flights late Sunday, according to the Criminal Investigation Division of the Taipei City Police Department.

Police in the three countries have uncovered a ring of Taiwanese con men who allegedly pretended to be from the Chinese government and a Chinese bank and asked victims to remit money to certain bank accounts under the pretext that their credit card information was stolen and they have to transfer funds to these accounts to help with the investigation.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 13, 2015
By: Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff reporter

“We want to keep the house, so that when younger generations come back they will have a

landmark to identify where the village used to stand and they will have something to help them imagine how life used to be in the village,” Leshan Borough (樂善) resident Amber Shyu (徐玉紅) said when asked why volunteers were going to move the fragile brick house 80m to make way for a planned road.

Other homes in the village had been demolished.

Originally home to a small village surrounded by a forest, the land was selected by the Ministry of the Interior to build commercial, industrial and housing complexes surrounding an airport express train station.

The Executive Yuan approved the project in 2010 and by 2013, most of the village had been flattened, despite opposition and repeated protests by villagers.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 11, 2015
By: Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

Buddhist Master Shih Chao-hwei (釋昭慧) yesterday criticized the Taipei City Government for

approving the rezoning of an environmental protection zone for government use after denying a similar request by the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation.

Shih said on Facebook that she “laughed” after seeing the city’s announcement that a plot of land in Shilin District’s (士林) environmental protection zone would be rezoned for government use, calling on Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to explain why the city applied “double standards” on relaxing restrictions.

She said the problem was not the approval of any particular project, but rather the process under which “environmental protection zones” were continually being “relieved of their designation.”     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/11
By Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, April 11 (CNA) A cold air mass could bring temperatures down significantly in northern and central Taiwan starting Monday, with lows likely at around 12 degrees Celsius, the Central Weather Bureau said Saturday.

Temperatures could hover between 12-20 degrees Celsius in northern Taiwan, 15-24 degrees in central Taiwan, and 19-27 degrees in southern Taiwan early next week, forecasters said.

Dry weather is likely, the bureau said, adding that sporadic showers are expected only in eastern Taiwan.

The chilly temperatures could start to ease up from Wednesday, and highs could reach 24 degrees islandwide, it said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Apr 11, 2015
By: Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

More needs to be done to protect city officials from outside interference while they are enforcing the law, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday, following the resignation of Taipei Construction Management Office Director Kao Wen-ting (高文婷).

“We make civil servants bear too much responsibility and pressure,” Ko said, adding that talking with Kao about her resignation had made him ponder how to guarantee that civil servants “feel at ease” enforcing the law.

“It is not right for us to not give civil servants adequate protection [to enforce the law], but then turn around and criticize them as soon as anything goes wrong,” he said.

Ko added that civil servants are “put in a bind” when they are required to take responsibility for enforcing city policy without being backed up by their superiors.     [FULL  STORY]