Omar Sharif Jr. praised Taiwan’s progress with LGBTI rights at the Osla Freedom Forum in Taipei
Gay Star News
Date: 11 November 2018
By: Calum Stuart 

Egyptian LGBTI activist Omar Sharif Jr. has praised Taiwan as an ‘Island of hope’.

Speaking at this year’s Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) in Taipei on Saturday (10 November), the LGBTI rights activist spoke of Taiwan’s move towards legalizing same-sex marriage.

‘The tide of tolerance is inevitable, I look to you, to Taiwan,’ Sharif told the forum attendees. ‘Now I stand in an island of hope, Taiwan has the opportunity to prove love always conquers hate.’

Sharif stressed to the audience that the legalization of same-sex marriage would be beneficial to the country. ‘Marriage equality only makes for a stronger country, marriage strengthens family, and make for a stronger Taiwan,’ he said.    [FULL  STORY]

30 monitoring stations report harmful levels in pollution across western Taiwan

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/11/12
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Due to poor diffusion conditions and an accumulation of pollutants, the air quality in central and southern Taiwan is still poor with harmful levels of pollution reported in 30 air quality monitoring stations, 12 of which are flashing red alerts.

As of 9 a.m. this morning, Taiwan’s Air Quality Monitoring Network is reporting harmful levels of pollution across much of western Taiwan, with more than half of the air quality monitoring stations flashing orange and red alerts for high levels of PM 2.5 concentration.

The 12 stations which have flashed a red alert are  Mailiao, Chiayi, Xinying, Annan, Tainan, Qiaotou, Fengshan, Renwu, Zuoying, Qianjin, Shanhua, and Qianzhen.

The Environmental Protection Agency said that the lack of wind in the early morning has led to an accumulations of pollutants. In the afternoon northeastern winds are expected to increase, possibly bringing in more pollution from neighboring countries.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/11
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Nov. 11 (CNA) Bells in Taiwan rang out at 11 a.m. Sunday, as the

country joined the rest of the world in commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.

“We are showing here in Taiwan, half a world away, our solidarity with all those in England, France, Belgium, and the other Allied countries,” Michael Hurst, director of the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society, said at an annual service in remembrance of Allied prisoners of war (POWs) during World War II.

The 21st Remembrance Day service was held at the site of the World War II Kinkaseki POW Camp in Jinguashi, New Taipei, and co-hosted by the Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society and the British Office Taipei, to pay tribute to former POWs who suffered or died in Taiwan.

At 11 a.m., a bell in a nearby temple tolled, while the participants in the service observed a moment of silence to mark the 1918 signing of the armistice between Germany and WWI Allies, exactly 100 years ago.
[FULL  STORY]

FIVE DEMANDS: Establishing new regulations for coal use would not be feasible, the Kaohsiung environmental bureau said, adding that it already restricts coal burning

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 12, 2018
By: Lin Chia-nan and Wang Jung-hsiang  /  Staff reporters

Thousands of people yesterday marched in Kaohsiung against air pollution,

calling on the city government to regulate coal burning and scrap a planned petrochemical plant near an elementary school.

The march started at Kaohsiung MRT Central Park Station at 1pm, from where protesters made their way to Kaohsiung City Hall.

It was the second of three marches against air pollution planned for this month and drew nearly 5,000 people, event organizer Southern Taiwan Anti-Air Pollution Alliance convener Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said.

The alliance has five demands: that the city government limit local plants’ coal use; a trade mechanism between stationary and mobile pollution sources stipulated in the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣污染防制法) be abolished; China Steel Corp (中鋼, CSC) transform its coke wet quenching tower into a dry one; Taiwan Power Co (台電) convert coal-fired units at the city’s Sinda (興達) and Dalin (大林) power plants to gas-fired ones; and that Taiwan-Japan Oxo Chemical Industries Inc (曄揚) scrap a plan to build petrochemical plant 200m from an elementary school, it said.
[FULL  STORY]

The Republic
Date: 11/10/18 6:12 AM

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The candidates vying to become the mayor of Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, faced off in a televised debate on Saturday, two weeks before a host of local elections seen as a barometer of the ruling party’s popularity.

The Nov. 24 mayoral election is one of hundreds being held in Taiwan for local government posts that are seen as a test of confidence in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which swept to power in 2016 with the election of President Tsai Ing-wen and a solid majority in parliament.

The DPP’s main opposition is the Nationalist Party, which relocated from mainland China amid civil war in 1949 and governed Taiwan for decades, first under martial law, then under full democracy beginning in the 1990s. The presidency has since alternated between the two parties, with the Nationalists, also known as the KMT, seen as more pro-China, and the DPP backing formal independence for Taiwan.

In Saturday’s debate, incumbent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, an independent, asked voters to continue supporting him, but the ruling party’s candidate, Pasuya Yao, said Ko has failed to make any changes in Taipei in the past four years.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 10 November, 2018
By: Paula Chao

Sogo, an upmarket department store chain, has started an anniversary sale. The chain hopes the 12-day sale that began Thursday can generate revenue of NT$10.8 billion (US$3.4 billion), up from 2% from last year.

Department stores frequently offer customers discounts on cosmetics such as lipstick and skin care products at this time of year.

Looking to buy an iPhone XS at a discount price for his girlfriend, Taipei resident Mr Chu arrived at the store at 2:30 am on Thursday. He was the first person in line.    [FULL  STORY]

‘A DESIRE TO INVADE’: Beijing’s hegemonic mentality is a source of tension in the Asia-Pacific region and threatens international order, the Mainland Affairs Council said

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 11, 2018
By: Chung Li-hua  /  Staff reporter

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed gratitude to US

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for his support of Taiwan.

“Based on the firm and friendly bilateral relations, Taiwan will continue its cooperation with the US in terms of regional and global affairs,” the ministry said. “Taiwan will actively seek to take part in international activities to contribute to the world.”

Taiwan will do its share to safeguard its own security and will work closely with the US and other like-minded countries to protect regional peace and stability, it added.

The ministry made the statement after Pompeo at the second US-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue in Washington on Friday reaffirmed “strong ties with a democratic Taiwan.”    [FULL  STORY]

The 20 year old mother reportedly locked her son in a bathroom for several days where he starved to death

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/11/10
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A case of severe child abuse by a young mother has resulted in the death of a two year old boy in Taipei.

A 20 year old mother, surnamed Lin (林), and her 21 year old boyfriend, surnamed Hsiao (蕭), are being investigated on charges of child abuse in the death of a two year old boy. The boy’s death was initially reported by the mother at 7 p.m. Wednesday evening (Nov. 7).

Apple Daily reports that the mother initially told officers that the boy had begun throwing tantrums in the afternoon, which led her to lock him in the apartment bathroom. The mother then said she left the residence with her boyfriend for approximately three hours.

She claimed that upon returning, she found the child had stopped breathing, and that she immediately reported the death to authorities. Investigators have since determined the body was abandoned for days.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/10
By: Yeh Su-ping, Miu Tsung-han and Frances Huang 

Taipei, Nov. 10 (CNA) Lee Ching-yu (李淨瑜), the wife of Taiwanese democracy activist Lee Ming-che (李明哲), said Saturday that Chinese authorities have denied her request to visit her husband twice, which has made her more concerned about her husband’s health condition.

In a news conference jointly organized by Lee, her friend Wang Li-ping (王麗萍), the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, and the rights group Covenants Watch, Lee said Beijing authorities have given no explanation why her husband was transferred back to a prison in Hunan, China, two weeks after being moved to a prison in Hebei last month.

Lee said the temperatures in Beijing have hovered around 2 degrees Celsius and the mercury in Hunan has reached around 12 degrees, and such an abrupt transfer of jail has raised concerns over the health state of her husband, in particular after her two requests to see her husband has been denied.    [FULL  STORY]