Taipei MRT slasher attacked another victim earlier on the street in Wanhua District

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/09/19
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The woman who slashed another woman’s chest with a box cutter inside the MRT Taipei Main Station on Monday (Sept. 17) has been found to have attacked another victim a few days earlier in Taipei’s Wanhua District.

On Monday, a 37-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王) suddenly lunged forward and slashed a 31-year-old woman surnamed Pan (潘)  in the chest with a box cutter as she walked past the information desk next to Exit 1 for the Tamsui-Xinyi Line in the MRT Taipei Main Station. Pan immediately began bleeding from a chest wound that was estimated to be about 15-17 centimeters in length.

Wang was quickly subdued by station staff and security guards, and after a psychiatric assessment, it was decided that Wang should be sent to the Taipei City Hospital SongDe Branch for psychiatric care.

On Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m., a 36-year-old female civil servant surnamed Lin (林) was just walking past the Uniqlo store on Hanzhong Street in Ximen when she noticed a woman staring at her, reported UDN. Lin saw the woman raise her hand out of the corner of her eye and suddenly felt a sharp pain in her arm.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/09/20
By: Wu Hsin-yun and Evelyn Kao 

Taipei, Sept. 20 (CNA) The air quality in some northern and central parts of western Taiwan Thursday was generally rated “unhealthy,” because of a lack of wind and stable weather that did not disperse atmospheric pollutants, according to the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).

As of noon, the EPA’s Air Quality Index (AQI) flashed an orange warning, indicating unhealthy air for sensitive groups, at 10 monitoring stations in parts of western Taiwan, including seven in northern Taiwan, the EPA’s Air Quality Monitoring Network showed.

The AQI in the leeward northern and central parts of western Taiwan is expected to flash a red waning, meaning unhealthy air for the general public, or an orange alert later Thursday as the conditions were not right for dispersing atmospheric pollutants there, according to the EPA.

In the rest of western Taiwan and all of eastern Taiwan, the air quality will be rated as either good or fair, the EPA forecast.    [FULL  STORY]

ON THE RUN? The NIA said it had only received notice from the US about Defense Distributed’s Cody Wilson yesterday, but that it would attempt to locate him

Taipei Times
Date:  Sep 21, 2018
By: Staff writer, with Reuters, AFP and CNA

The National Immigration Agency (NIA) yesterday confirmed that a US citizen accused of

sexual assault of a teen in Texas, who is at the center of a legal battle over efforts to make instructions for 3D printed plastic guns widely available, is in Taiwan.

Cody Wilson, 30, was placed under investigation after a counselor on Aug. 22 told police that a 16-year-old girl who had sought help from the counselor said she was paid US$500 to have sex with Wilson at an Austin hotel, Austin Police Commander Troy Officer told a news conference on Wednesday.

He said Wilson had left for Taiwan after learning that police in Austin were investigating the accusation.

“Detectives with the Austin Police Department Organized Crime Division filed a warrant for sexual assault for a Cody Rutledge Wilson, white male, 30 years of age,” said Officer, who heads the division.    [FULL  STORY]

Reporters Without Borders calls on UN to accredit Taiwanese journalists

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/09/19
By: Scott Morgan, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on the United Nations (U.N.) to allow Taiwanese journalists to attend and cover its events, in a statement published on Sept. 18.

Secretary-general of RSF, Christophe Deloire, said the U.N. ban is discriminatory and contradicts the right to free information enshrined in the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Recent years have seen China pressure the U.N. to restrict media accreditation to Taiwanese journalists on the basis of their passports, while U.N. policy states that Taiwanese journalists who present Taiwanese identity papers will not be admitted entry to the U.N. and its events.

The statement was published on the opening day of the 73rd session of the U.N. General Assembly, the intergovernmental organization’s main representative and policy-making body. The 73rd session will run from Sept. 18 to Sept. 25 in New York, U.S.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-09-18

The government is implementing a plan to draw international attention to Taiwan’s

exclusion from the United Nations. The plan coincides with the annual UN General Assembly debates, which open Tuesday in New York.

Bob Chen, head of the foreign ministry’s Department of International Organizations, highlighted parts of the plan on Tuesday.

Chen said the government will hold a series of events in New York during the debates. These events will focus on Taiwan’s success in implementing the UN’s sustainable development goals. They aim to show Taiwan as a key partner for the rest of the world in achieving these goals.

Chen also said the government has asked Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to write a joint letter to the UN secretary-general. He said Taiwan is working to get allies to speak out on its behalf during the debates, and to get other friendly nations to offer other kinds of help.
[FULL  STORY]

Your daily bulletin of Taiwan news, courtesy of ICRT.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/09/18
By: International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT)

The Presidential Office said Monday that claims by Beijing that Taiwan’s intelligence services are recruiting Chinese students studying in Taiwan as spies are “misinformation aimed at undermining cross-Strait ties.”

The statement comes after China’s state broadcaster CCTV and various other news outlets claimed that Taiwan is stepping-up its espionage operations against Beijing.

An editorial in the state-run Global Times explicitly drew the link between the inauguration of Tsai Ing-wen’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government and heightened espionage activities by Taiwan: “After the pro-independence DPP took office, the Taiwan authorities dispatched more spies to the mainland, posing serious challenges and adding difficulties to counter-espionage work.” it said.

Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said Beijing is fabricating the news in order to raise anti-Taiwan sentiment in China and dampen the development of cross-Strait ties.    [FULL  STORY]

Mayer transferred to New Taipei District Prosecutors Office to face murder charges

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/09/18
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – During five hours of questioning by the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), Israeli-American tattoo artist Oren Shlomo Mayer denied involvement in the murder of a Canadian teacher and clashed with an official from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), reports said Tuesday.

Mayer, 37, had been extradited from the Philippines Monday evening to face interrogations about his alleged part in the murder and dismemberment of English language teacher Ryan Sanjay Ramgahan last month.

At around 6 p.m., the CIB transferred him to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office for further questioning, the Central News Agency reported. The murder allegedly happened at a riverside park in New Taipei City’s Yonghe District, and was allegedly fueled by suspicions that Ramgahan had informed police about drug deals the two men were involved in.

However, Mayer completely denied any part in the murder, and only acknowledged he had been to the site of the murder earlier in the day, but had not met the Canadian victim there.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: 2018/09/18
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Ko Lin

Taipei, Sept. 18 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) called Tuesday for support from

the international community and urged like-minded allies in Europe to team up with Taiwan in its pursuit of democracy and freedom amid growing pressure from China.

China is unilaterally altering the status quo and undermining cross-Taiwan Strait relations through intensified suppression of Taiwan, efforts that only deepen the country’s resilience and determination to defend its interests and democratic values, Tsai said.

She made the remarks during a meeting at the Presidential Office with a visiting European Parliament (EP) delegation led by Ivo Vajgl of Slovenia.

She thanked the members for their long-term support of Taiwan, saying that the government was especially grateful when the EP passed a report last week that called for an end to China’s military provocation of the nation.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 19, 2018
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

A leak at a CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) gasoline station on Green Island (綠島)

has polluted the nearby groundwater supply, where the benzene concentration soared to 294 times the allowable limit, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday.

The station on Aug. 10 notified CPC management that a pump had leaked 3,700 liters of gasoline, almost a month after it confirmed the incident on July 14, CPC said in a statement on Sunday.

EPA officials last month drilled three wells around the pump to collect groundwater samples for testing, said EPA Soil and Groundwater Remediation Fund Management Board executive secretary Chen Shyh-wei (陳世偉), who published the test results yesterday.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-09-17

President Tsai Ing-wen spoke on Monday at a Taipei reception marking the 197th

anniversary of Central American independence.

With El Salvador breaking ties with Taiwan last month, only three diplomatic allies attended Monday’s event. President Tsai was joined by the ambassadors of Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras when she walked into the reception.

President Tsai spoke about the effects of Chinese efforts to distance Taiwan from the international community. “In recent times, China has been suppressing our diplomacy for no reason. But these threats will only strengthen Taiwan’s friendship with its Central American allies. We look forward to standing on equal footing with our allies who share the same values, as we protect our belief in democracy and freedom,” said Tsai.    [FULL  STORY]