ACCOUNTABILITY: One legislator said that if company owners are not held responsible, they would continue to overwork their employees and cause more crashes

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 25, 2018
By: Ann Maxon  /  Staff reporter

A truck involved in a crash that killed three people in Tainan on Monday belongs to a

transport company that frequently overworks its drivers and causes road casualties, the New Power Party (NPP) caucus said yesterday.

Two police officers, Kuo Chen-hsiung (郭振雄) and Yeh Chia-hao (葉家豪), and a truck driver surnamed Hsiao (蕭) were killed in the rear-end collision on Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1).

The truck driver responsible for the accident, surnamed Lu (陸), admitted to having dozed off due to fatigue.

“While the driver has been released by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office on bail of NT$100,000 [US$3,377], should his boss not also be held responsible?” NPP caucus convener Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) told a news conference at the caucus’ office in Taipei.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-04-24

A protest against the government’s pension reform program has entered its second day.

Demonstrators are angered that government efforts to shore up the pension system’s finances will require lower payouts. But they also object to the idea that all pensions should be cut equally.

Around 3,000 protestors gathered in Taipei on Monday for a march calling for dignity and fairness for retired police officers and firefighters.

The focus of the march is pension reform, an issue that will affect workers in many professions. But the demonstrators say it is unfair to cut pensions for police officers and firefighters to the same level to which pensions for teachers and civil servants will be cut.
[FULL  STORY]

Politically inconvenient choices define the search for more power as AC units switch on for the summer and Taiwan’s renewable push struggles to make headway.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/04/24
By: By Timothy Ferry

Among the “five shortages” identified by Taiwan’s Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI) and currently being addressed by the government in a series of policy initiatives, electrical power is seen as the most crucial.

Taiwan’s generating capacity has actually declined in recent years as older coal- and oil-fired power plants have been retired. With the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant (NPP1) already shuttered due to the inability to refuel two years before schedule, along with the suspension in 2014 of the Lungmen project (NPP4) that was expected to generate as much as 15 percent of Taiwan’s total power needs, the state-owned Taiwan Power Co. (TPC) has struggled to meet demand for the past two years during the hot season (from May until late fall). Reserve margins, spare capacity that can be brought online in a relatively short time to meet surges in demand or compensate for breakdowns, have repeatedly fallen to less than 2 percent.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/04/24
By: Chang Ming-hsuan and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, April 24 (CNA) The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced Tuesday that it has restricted measles vaccinations to certain groups of people after the country’s measles vaccine stocks declined sharply to as few as 20,000 doses nationwide in two days.

Despite the CDC ruling out the likelihood of a measles epidemic in Taiwan, a nine-year high in measles infections has prompted people to swarm into hospitals for inoculation against the highly contagious disease.

According to CDC statistics, there were 30,000 doses of measles vaccine available for paid inoculations at hospitals and clinics around Taiwan on Sunday. The volume dropped to 26,000 the following day, and further decreased to around 20,000 doses on Tuesday, the data shows.    [FULL  STORY]

PLASTIC PLAGUE: Tonnes of waste were removed from beaches, harbors and tourist attractions for the event, whose theme this year is ‘End plastic pollution’

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 22, 2018
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

To mark Earth Day today, thousands of people nationwide yesterday joined cleanup efforts

to promote the idea of reducing plastic use.

Established in 1970 by US environmentalists, Earth Day has become a global event celebrated annually on April 22, and this year’s theme is “End plastic pollution,” the US-based Earth Day Network said on its Web site.

Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) led about 1,000 people, including Environmental Protection Administration Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), to clean the city’s Syucuo Harbor (許厝港) and Jhuwei Fishing Harbor (竹圍漁港).

A total of 3.4 tonnes of garbage and 600kg of recyclable waste was gathered from the beaches, while 630.7kg of trash was collected in the harbors’ waters, with plastics constituting the majority of the garbage, the Taoyuan Department of Environmental Protection said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-04-23

Women’s rights activists in Taiwan are inviting the public to wear denim on Denim Day,

April 25. They are calling on people to respect women’s authority over their bodies.

Women’s rights activists shout the slogan and new brand ‘Only Yes means Yes’ to bring awareness to sexual assault. That’s the meaning behind Denim Day, April 25. This denim fashion show is to bring attention to the need to respect women’s authority over their bodies.

Actress Chu Cha-Ray says, “Women can’t just follow their hearts. They can’t be pretty and dress up, can they? If I look pretty, it’s like I’m seducing people. But that’s not true. It’s my body and I have authority over it. Other people, men and women alike, are not to do anything inappropriate to it.
[FULL  STORY]

While bench pressing heavy weight, barbell slips from man’s hands and falls on his neck nearly killing him on the spot in western Taiwan

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/04/23
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — While lifting weights early Sunday (April 22) morning,

a man at a gym in western Taiwan’s Taichung is in critical condition after a barbell fell on his neck while attempting a solo bench press, reported Apple Daily.

At 7:50 a.m. yesterday morning, a 27-year-old man surnamed Lee (李) was bench pressing a heavy weight without a spotter at a gym in Taichung’s Xitun District when his arms suddenly gave way and the barbell fell right on top of his neck near his clavicle. Others in the gym who saw the accident, lifted the barbell off of him and found that he was not breathing and did not have a pulse.

Paramedics were called to the scene and the immediately attached an automatic external defibrillator (AED), but the device did not recommend delivering a shock. Instead, they implemented CPR and rushed him to the hospital.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/04/23
By: Joseph Yeh

Taipei, April 23 (CNA) The de facto American representative to Taiwan on

Monday reiterated the United States’ long-standing support for Taiwan’s participation as an observer at the annual World Health Assembly (WHA), as this year’s meeting draws near without an invitation for Taiwan to attend.

“The United States continues to support Taiwan’s meaningful and substantive contributions to the international community,” American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Kin Moy (梅健華) said.

In particular, the U.S. has consistently supported Taiwan’s participation as an observer at the annual WHA and in technical meetings, Moy said at the opening of an enterovirus laboratory diagnosis workshop being held in Taipei under the U.S.-Taiwan Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF).
[FULL  STORY]

MANY DOUBTS:  This month’s survey by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation was conducted last week, ahead of the PLA’s live-fire exercises in the Taiwan Strait

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 24, 2018
By:Staff writer, with CNA

The majority of Taiwanese do not think that China’s People’s Liberation Army

(PLA) would invade Taiwan, a poll showed yesterday, with only 25.7 percent thinking such a scenario was likely.

The Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation’s latest monthly survey found that 64.5 percent of respondents do not think such an attack is very likely.

Asked if the US was likely to send troops to help defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack, 47.4 percent of respondents said they were confident of such support, but 41 percent said they had doubts.

However, only 27.1 percent think the nation’s military would be able to repel any a PLA invasion, while 65.4 percent said they were not confident.
[FULL  STORY]