Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-09-11

A Japanese visitor was caught on camera kicking a statue dedicated to the memory of

Taiwan’s “comfort women” in the southern city of Tainan earlier this month. Foreign ministry spokesperson Andrew Lee said Tuesday that his office will continue to communicate with Japan to call on the country’s nationals to respect the history of Taiwanese “comfort women.”

During World War II, hundreds of thousands of women were forced to work in Japanese military brothels. The so-called comfort women included over 2,000 from Taiwan. Japan’s government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been accused of denying or downplaying the country’s wartime human rights abuses.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan can’t effectively preach soft power while continuing to execute its citizens.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/09/11
By: David Evans

On the afternoon of Friday Aug. 31, Lee Hung-chi (李宏基) was executed by firing squad at a jail in Kaohsiung. His crime was a heinous one.

In April 2014, Lee, now 39, stabbed his ex-wife to death outside the kindergarten attended by their two young daughters. He then abducted one of the girls and drove into the mountains where he drugged her, before setting fire to charcoal in the car. His objective was for them both to die, but they were rescued.

Lee later made a full recovery, but his daughter died in hospital two months later.

Lee was initially handed a 15-year sentence for the murder of his wife, and a life term for causing the death of his daughter. However, Taiwan’s High Court later increased the sentences to life in prison for his wife’s murder and the death sentence for his daughter’s death. These sterner sentences were subsequently upheld by Taiwan’s Supreme Court in 2016.    [FULL  STORY]

 

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/09/11
By: Wang Shu-feng and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Sept. 11 (CNA) Typhoon Mangkhut was upgraded to a super typhoon Tuesday and will be closest to Taiwan this coming weekend when it could pose a potential threat to eastern areas and the Hengchun Peninsula in the south, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) forecast.

As of 8 a.m. Tuesday, Mangkhut was located 2,340 kilometers east-southeast of Eluanbi on Taiwan’s southernmost tip, traveling at a speed of 22 kilometers per hour in a westerly direction, the CWB said.

The typhoon was carrying maximum sustained winds of 184 kilometers per hour with gusts of up to 227 kph, according to the bureau.

Mangkhut is likely to pass through the Bashi Channel just south of Taiwan Saturday and Sunday, bringing rainfall to eastern areas.    [FULL  STORY]

‘MORE THAN THREE MONTHS’: Police suspect that the motive behind the killing was related to domestic violence experienced by the family and an inheritance dispute

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 12, 2018
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

The body of a murdered man had been stored in a freezer for more than three months,

Kaohsiung police said yesterday, adding that evidence pointed to domestic violence and an inheritance dispute as motives.

The 47-year-old man, surnamed Ting (丁), was part of a household in Kaohsiung’s Cienjhen District (前鎮), and his body was discovered on Monday by police making a house visit after Ting had been reported as a missing person.

The body, wrapped up in a blanket, was found inside a freezer on the first floor of Ting’s home, police said.

It had three deep lacerations on the back and neck, and a bruise on the back of the head, they added.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan Interntional
Date: 2018-09-10

A Malaysian boy with congenital heart disease will receive operations at National Taiwan

University Children’s Hospital.

The two-year-old boy was diagnosed with the disease when he was born in May 2016. Not only are his left and right ventricles in opposite directions, his other organs such as  liver and spleen are not in the right place either.

The boy underwent surgery in Taiwan last year. He checked into the hospital Monday to prepare for the next stage of operations.

To help cover his medical costs, the Malaysian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MayCham) in Taipei has given the boy and his family US$4,500 and other assistance. The funding drive was initiated by MayCham President K. C. Lau.    [FULL  STORY]

The Newws Lens
Date: 2018/09/10
By: Ho Yu-hsuan

Tired bus drivers are a danger to us all. Here, a middle man in the disputes between bus companies and their drivers reveals all the tricks he was forced to use to keep drivers overworked.

From time to time, Taiwan’s media flashes news stories about car accidents involving buses, where the suspected cause of the accident is an overworked and therefore tired driver.

These incidents, among the worst of which saw 33 people killed in a bus crash last year, provide a timely reminder that Taiwan’s labor issues are not simply disputes between the workers and their employers, but are relevant to the safety of the general public.

In the discussion of these events, the passenger transport industry is very often boiled down to just two actors; “management executives” versus “blue-collar drivers.”
[FULL  STORY]

A statement from President of Panama Juan Carlos Varela followed the decision of the Trump admin. to recall top US diplomats from 3 Central American Countries

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/09/10
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – In a statement made on Sunday Sept. 9, the President of Panama Juan Carlos Varela asked the United States to respect the decision of his country’s government to recognize the government of China and abandon diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

The statement followed the decision of the United States to recall its envoys from three Central American countries, including El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, and Panama on Friday, Sept. 7 over the issue of breaking diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

The United States has made it clear that following the rupture of ties between El Salvador and Taiwan in August, that Taiwan’s diplomatic relations and conversely, Chinese influence in Central America are serious concerns of the Trump administration.

AFP quoted the Panamanian President’s statement as saying “We respect the sovereign decisions of other countries and we will always ask the same respect for ours.”
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/09/10
By: Ku Chuan and Evelyn Kao 

Taipei, Sept. 10 (CNA) The head of a Tainan-based association promoting the rights of comfort women, along with several Tainan City councilors and legislators of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) delivered a petition to the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association’s (JTEA’s) Taipei office Monday in a protest over a Japanese man who was spotted appearing to kick Taiwan’s first comfort women statue in Tainan earlier this month.

The petition was accepted by a JTEA official after a scuffle between protesters and police.

A bronze statue symbolizing women forced to work in wartime brothels for the Japanese military during World War II was unveiled Aug. 14, the first such memorial erected in the country, during a ceremony presided over by former President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in the southern city.

At the ceremony, Ma said that the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice enacted by the Democratic Progressive Party government can be used as a legal basis to demand that Japan apologize and pay compensation, which he said “will be real transitional justice for Taiwan’s comfort women.”    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times 
Date: Sep 11, 2018
By: Chen Yu-fu  /  Staff reporter

The government is stepping up its efforts to prevent organized crime groups and vote-

buying from interfering in the results of the Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections, the Ministry of the Interior said.

Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) recently ordered police stations at all levels, as well as aviation, airport, seaport and railway police bureaus, to help crack down on criminal organizations attempting to influence the elections, with hundreds of secret operatives deployed to search for evidence of bribery.

It is the first time that the aviation, airport, seaport and railway police have been ordered to assist in preventing election fraud.

As part of the crackdown, a candidate surnamed Lai (賴) running for a township council seat in Changhua County was last week indicted on vote-buying charges after he allegedly gave voters gift boxes of high-quality tea worth NT$1,000 each.
[FULL  STORY]