The China Post
Date: July 19, 2017
By: The China Post

 

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Four people are dead and nine are injured after a smashup today involving a cement truck on the main road up to Yangmingshan, according to the Taipei Fire Department.

The cement truck failed to stop as it approached an intersection on Yangde Boulevard (仰德大道) in Shilin District, smashing into eight cars and running into a house as well as two more parked cars.

The truck’s driver has said that his vehicle’s brakes failed.

The accident occurred around 8:16 a.m. Twelve ambulances were dispatched to the scene, where emergency responders found three men dead, one woman without vital signs and nine more people injured.

The woman subsequently died.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-07-19

The Council of Indigenous Peoples is set to hold a conference on Taiwan’s indigenous

languages on August 1.The conference aims to encourage government organizations to promote indigenous languages.

The conference will be held one year on from President Tsai Ing-wen’s apology to the indigenous people of Taiwan for the historical injustices they have faced. At the time, Tsai promised to make a law aimed at preserving indigenous languages a priority. The Legislature passed the law in May, and it took effect June 14. The law gives official status to indigenous languages and allows local governments in aboriginal areas to issue official documents in the local mother tongue.

In related news, President Tsai Ing-wen took to Facebook Wednesday to celebrate the new practice of using indigenous languages in government documents. She posted a photo of a document from a government office in Hualien County written in the local Amis language.

Tsai wrote that the move in a number of areas towards issuing documents in local languages signals a step towards transitional justice. She also said the central government and local authorities will continue working to ensure Taiwan’s indigenous cultures are treated with more importance.    [SOURCE]

The dish will be repaired by an NPM team: Japan expert

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/07/19
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A blue-and-white Japanese dish made about 350 years ago

fell into three pieces while on loan to the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum (故宮博物院南部院區) in Chiayi County, reports said Wednesday.

The fact was uncovered at 8:20 a.m. Tuesday during a daily inspection round ahead of the official opening to visitors, and no foul play was suspected. The museum said the breaking of the dish was purely the result of the item’s old age.

The Museum of Oriental Ceramics in Osaka (大阪市立東洋陶瓷美術館) which had loaned out the collection, sent a curator, Hitoshi Kobayashi (小林仁), to Taiwan while asking the NPM not to touch or move any of the artifacts. Following his first inspection, the Japanese expert reportedly agreed that repair work on the dish should be done by the NPM Southern Branch team and it would continue to be exhibited there after completion of the work.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/07/19
By: Yiu Kai-hsiang

Taipei, July 19 (CNA) The Taipei City government has become the first local government in Taiwan to grant gay employees marriage and paternity leave if they register their relationship at a household registration office.

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said on Wednesday that because the Civil Code has yet to be amended within two years following a Constitutional Court ruling upholding same-sex marriage, marriage and paternity leave rules have yet to be revised in the private sector.

But gay public sector employees will now be allowed to take marriage and paternity leave if their marriages are officially registered, Ko said.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 19, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Handlers of the first Taiwan-made satellite, FORMOSAT-5, could

finally heave a sigh of relief after they were told that their last-minute paperwork rush should made it just in time for the flight late Wednesday to California, from where it’s set to be launched into orbit.

The remote-sensing satellite was being held by customs at the Taoyuan airport earlier Wednesday. While authorities would only say that it was a “paperwork issue” delaying its exit, the Liberty Times reported that the satellite’s handlers had completely forgotten to apply for an export permit.

Customs officials said later that there should be no problem for the satellite to make the 11:50 p.m. flight after the missing documents were handed in.

The FORMOSAT-5 is headed for California, where it will be launched into space on Aug. 25.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-07-18

International press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders has opened its first

Asian office in Taipei.

At a press conference held Tuesday to mark the office’s opening, Reporters Without Borders secretary general Christophe Deloire explained why the organization chose to open an office in Taipei. He said Taiwan has a geographically central location and also leads the organization’s Asian press freedom rankings.

Deloire also condemned Beijing’s treatment of Chinese dissident and Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died Thursday at the age of 61. Liu had been serving an 11-year prison sentence for calling for an end to one-party rule in China. He had been granted medical parole after being diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer. Deloire said Liu’s death constituted murder, as he had not been given appropriate medical attention.  [FULL  STORY]

Couple from fire department try to use their position to extort NT$70.6 million from McDonald’s for son’s broken arm

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/07/18
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A firefighter and his wife, also an employee at the New Taipei City Fire Department, allegedly tried to extort NT$70.6 million dollars (US$2,325,275) out of local McDonald’s for their son’s broken arm and safety violations, according to the Taoyuan Prosecutors Office.

On March 30, the four-year-old son of a Taoyuan firefighter, Tsai I-lang (蔡一郎), and his wife, Huang Ying-hui (黃櫻惠), also an employee at the fire department, broke his arm when he fell off the slide on the second floor playground of a McDonald’s in Tucheng District, in New Taipei City. The couple demanded that the branch of the burger chain pay compensation for his injuries and the store promised to improve safety on the playground and cover his medical expenses.

However, the couple was not satisfied and allegedly used their administrative access to government records on at the McDonald’s store in Tucheng, as well as other branches in Taoyuan, Taibei, New Taipei City, Pingtung, Hualien, and Taitung that were in violation of fire safety and building codes and urban planning regulations. They then allegedly sent a threatening letter to these branches to pay them compensation or face being exposed or reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/07/18
By: Pan Chih-yi and S.C. Chang

Taipei, July 18 (CNA) Eslite Bookstore founder Robert C.Y. Wu (吳清友) died of heart

disease at Taipei Medical University Hospital Tuesday, the bookstore announced. He was 66.

The Tainan native founded Eslite Bookstore (誠品書店）in January 1989 in Taipei, and developed it into an arts and cultural brand name that has now expanded to Hong Kong and China.

Under Wu’s leadership, the Eslite Group now operates 42 stores in Taiwan, three in Hong Kong and one in China, some of which are open 24 hours a day. The brand also covers art galleries, seminar halls, performance halls and movie theaters.    [FULL  STORY]

CHAIRMAN DISPUTE:KMT Legislator Chen Ming-wen wrestled with the DPP’s Hsu Yu-jen, while the KMT’s Alex Fai disabled a loudspeaker in a bid to silence the DPP

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 19, 2017
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter

A cross-committee budget review of the Cabinet’s proposed Forward-looking

Infrastructure Development Program was thrown into disarray at the legislature yesterday as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers clashed over who should chair the meeting.

The meeting was presided over by the Cabinet’s Finance Committee, of which KMT Legislator Luo Ming-tsai (羅明才) and DPP Legislator Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋) are conveners.

On Monday, when the review began, the KMT caucus sought to have Luo chair the session, but later said that Wang could take the role.

However, KMT lawmakers yesterday said that Luo must chair the meeting, entering the venue shouting: “Here comes the chairman.”    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 18, 2017
By: The China Post

• Explosions and an ensuing blaze hit Taichung’s Fengjia business district at noon
• At least one person was killed and 15 injured, one with serious burns
• One victim was a pregnant woman

LIVE UPDATES

8:08 p.m. People have been taking to the Facebook page of the eatery where the explosions happened, Sin Ji Bridge Curry Restaurant (心齋橋咖哩名物), to express support for the business. Many say they hope the shop can get back on its feet, like this loyal customer who said they’d eaten there many times in the past few years.

6:45 p.m. A recap of what’s happened: at 12:22 p.m., a serious of explosions occurred at a curry restaurant on the first floor of a building in Taichung’s Fengjia area. They are believed to have been caused by a sparking igniting a leaking gas cylinder.

The resulting fire destroyed three buildings, killing a woman on the second floor of the building housing the restaurant. Fifteen more were injured, with two in critical condition.

Investigations into the exact cause of the blaze are underway.

6:35 p.m. Two of the 15 people injured are in critical condition, with burns to more than 90 percent of their bodies, reports say.

5:52 p.m. The number of injured has increased to 15 after a person who was at the scene when the explosions occurred sought medical treatment independently. The other 14 were sent to the hospital for treatment by emergency personnel.

5:35 p.m. Following the discovery of a body at the scene, here’s the latest on the fire and the other victims. Fourteen people were injured, 10 women and four men. Of them, six were students at nearby Feng Chia University.

Nine of the victims had been inside the buildings at the time of the incident, with five of them suffering smoke inhalation.    [FULL  STORY]