Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-07-14

All four members of Taiwan’s team at this year’s International Chemistry Olympiad in

Thailand have won gold medals.

The event is an international chemistry competition for high school students. Some 279 students from 76 countries took part in this year’s event, held in Nakhon Pathom on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Taiwan’s team comprised two high schoolers from Taipei, one from Taichung and one from Tainan. Yeh Yuan-chen, the student from Taichung, performed especially well, with the second-highest overall score in the competition. The team’s combined scores placed Taiwan first overall on the leaderboard.
[SOURCE]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/07/14
By Worthy Shen and Ko Lin

Taipei, July 14 (CNA) The automated law-enforcement traffic system in Hsuehshan

Tunnel on Freeway No. 5 has recorded more than 2,000 traffic violations since its introduction nearly a month ago, police said on Friday.

The system installed in the 12.9 kilometer-long tunnel on the freeway connecting Taipei and Yilan County in northeastern Taiwan uses a total of 16 cameras, eight each in the northbound and southbound lanes.

The fastest traveling vehicle recorded in the tunnel since the implementation of the automated system in Hsuehshan was one traveling at 185 kilometers per hour, according to the freeway police.    [FULL  STORY]

LEGISLATIVE CHAOS:No more than five minutes into the session, Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan advised Premier Lin Chuan to leave and ended the meeting

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 15, 2017
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter

After a presentation on the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program by

Premier Lin Chuan (林全) was yesterday once again blocked by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) bypassed a legislative question-and-answer session to send the Executive Yuan’s budget proposals to a committee review.

As soon as Su announced the start of the plenary session, KMT legislators, who had stayed in the chamber overnight, started shouting slogans, sounding air horns, blowing whistles, and throwing water balloons and fake banknotes to prevent Lin from reaching the podium.

KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) threw a water balloon at DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡). Wu countered by tossing a chair toward Lin Wei-chou, which missed.

DPP Legislator Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) threw water from a vacuum flask at KMT lawmakers, who hit back with water balloons. Chuang then lifted up a chair and threatened to hurl it toward his KMT colleagues.

DPP caucus secretary-general Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) scuffled with KMT Legislator Alex Fei (費鴻泰), while DPP Legislator Su Chen-ching (蘇震清) and KMT Legislator Hsu Chih-jung (徐志榮) also came to blows.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 15, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A week ago, a black dog died four days after entering an animal

shelter in Southern Taiwan. It had not been put to sleep because euthanasia is illegal in Taiwan.

Rather, the pooch appeared to have been overstressed by a combination of bad weather and a hot, loud and extremely overcrowded shelter.

The death of this particular dog triggered outrage from members of the public and the people who had known it outside the shelter.

Known for patrolling a convenience store, it was so affable to customers that most who knew it believed it had a family of its own.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-07-13

President Tsai Ing-wen accompanied President Horacio Cartes of Paraguay on a

tour of the southern city of Kaohsiung on Thursday. Cartes is on a three-day visit to Taiwan as the two sides mark sixty years of diplomatic relations.

Cartes was shown the Port of Kaohsiung, which has been dubbed Asia’s New Bay Area for a string of redevelopment projects. He also enjoyed a boat ride along the harbor to get a waterside view of the port city.

The city’s mayor, Chen Chu, hosted an event at the Kaohsiung Exhibition Center to welcome Cartes. Chen said Taiwan and Paraguay are at two ends of the world but distance has not affected the rich relationship between them. Chen said Kaohsiung is honored to receive Cartes on the first day of the 61st year of ties between the two countries. She said she is glad that an ally country is able to witness the transformation and improvement of the city.    [FULL  STORY]

DJ Maze managed to get her phone back: reports

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/07/13  
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A Taiwanese DJ beat up a woman who stole her

smartphone at a nightclub in the United States, reports said Thursday.

The woman was reportedly a member of a gang which smuggled the phones off the premises as soon as they were stolen, making it difficult for the owners to get them back.

DJ Maze, who is also known as Lin Chia-ling (林嘉凌) or Chiang Chiang (薔薔), was traveling in the U.S. recently when she spent a night out with friends at a club in the Los Angeles area, reports said.

According to Maze, she noticed a woman standing close to her taking pictures of the club on a phone. However, she also felt the woman’s other hand reaching into her own handbag and taking out her smartphone.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/07/13
By: Scarlett Chai and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, July 13 (CNA) The Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it is following closely

a drug smuggling case in Indonesia, which involves four Taiwanese suspects, one of whom was shot dead when being arrested by the Indonesian police.

The ministry said it has directed personnel stationed in Indonesia to obtain more details about the case, which was handled jointly by Indonesian and Taiwanese police.

This is the third case in which a Taiwanese suspect has been killed by Indonesian police in recent years, according to the ministry.

A drug ring was busted on Thursday morning in Anyer Beach west of Jakarta and 1,000 kilograms of Amphetamine hidden in pig feed from China seized.
[FULL  STORY]

PRIORITIES:Citizen’s Congress Watch said the Legislative Yuan should first pass an overdue budget for state-owned enterprises, which has cleared committee review

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 14, 2017
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

A planned review of the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program

budget yesterday drew conflicting reactions from civic groups, with one
environmental group calling for additional funding even as others called for the review to be postponed or stopped.

“The current budget is insufficient, because it does not include any funds for a ‘blue road’ coastal ferry service and the first stage does not include the doubling of railway on the eastern coast,” Taiwan Environmental Protection Union chairman Liou Gin-show (劉俊秀) told a news conference, calling infrastructure development plans for eastern counties “far too slow.”

“Plans to develop MRT and light rail systems in western cities such as Hsinchu, Tainan and Kaohsiung can be slowed down a bit, because residents need to get used to using public transportation first,” Liou said. “However, rail development on the east coast is extremely urgent, because there is no way to get to most places other than driving.”    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 14, 2017
By: The China Post

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen released a statement late Thursday on the death of

Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo.

Liu was diagnosed with liver cancer earlier this year and released on medical parole just weeks ago from an 11-year sentence for writing a charter promoting democracy. The hospital where he was being held against his will said Thursday night that Liu had died.

Tsai, the leader of the world’s only Chinese-speaking democracy, said she mourned his passing.

“Tonight, together with everyone that cares about human rights in China, we mourn the tragic passing of Liu Xiaobo. I want to pay my highest respects to this tireless advocate for human rights,” Tsai said in a statement that she also posted to Twitter.

“I also wish to express my deepest condolences to his family, particularly Ms. Liu Xia who is currently still under house arrest.    [FULL  STORY]

Two transgender people in Taiwan believe the high suicide rate in their community might be due to gender stereotypes and inequalities being more serious issues in the Chinese culture.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/07/12
By: Olivia Yang

Seven out of ten transgender people in Taiwan have thought about suicide or tried to

kill themselves — nearly twice the rate among the U.S. transgender community.

A 2014 survey conducted by the Intersex, Transgender and Transsexual People Care Association (ISTSCare) in Taiwan showed that 70 percent out of the more than 200 transgender respondents said they had attempted or thought about suicide.

“But I think the real number may be higher,” says Abby Wu (吳伊婷), co-founder of ISTSCare and long-time advocate for transgender people in Taiwan.

“If you or someone you know needs help, contact one of the many free hotlines available anywhere in the world.”

[FULL  STORY]