Taiwan News
Date: 2017/06/25
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan)–A Taiwanese legislator said on Sunday that she will introduce legislation intended to require HIV-positive people to reveal their AIDS condition to emergency medical responders after a recent incident in eastern Taiwan caused a scare.

There were recent news reports about a fire department emergency medical technician in Hualien whose wound allegedly came into contact with the blood of a patient the EMT was attending to. The technician later learned from the hospital treating the patient that the patient is HIV positive. The technician subsequently suffered from great panic and anxiety and reportedly spent more than NT$20,000 on treatment as prevention for HIV.

People First Party (PFP) Legislator Chen Yi-chieh (陳怡潔) said she will introduce a bill intended to make revelation of HIV-infected people’s AIDS condition to emergency medical responders (EMRs) mandatory to protect the welfare of EMRs. At the same time, the bill is also intended to require that EMRs cannot refuse to attend to the patients upon knowing about their AIDS condition, she added.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/06/25
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, June 25 (CNA) The Presidential Office on Sunday conveyed condolences to China over a deadly

landslide in Sichuan Province and offered Taiwan’s assistance, if necessary.

The message of sympathy and concern was conveyed to China via Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council and Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said.

Taiwan also said it was willing to provide any assistance that would help reduce the damage and loss caused by the disaster, according to Huang.

Chinese state media reported Sunday that 15 bodies had been found, while 118 people remained missing after a hillside collapsed in the farming village of Xinmo in Sichuan’s Mao County, burying more than 60 houses.    [FULL  STORY]

ASIA CEMENT CONTROVERSY:It respected others’ opinions, the firm said, and its present mining operation in Hualien County is not inside Taroko National Park

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 26, 2017
By: Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Thousands of protesters yesterday marched from the Executive Yuan to the Presidential Office Building

in Taipei to back demands that the government terminate a controversial extension of Asia Cement Corp’s (亞泥) mining rights in Hualien County’s Sincheng Township (新城).

Members of protest organizer Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan (CET) and others gathered in front of the Control Yuan shouting: “Abolish Asia Cement’s mining rights! Reform the mining sector!”

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said Asia Cement did not obtain the consent of Aboriginal landowners before applying for the extension of its mining rights, which it should have done to conform to Article 21 of the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民基本法).

The Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Monday last week that its approval of the extension was not illegal, with Executive Yuan spokesperson Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) saying the administration supports the ministry’s decision.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-06-24

President Tsai Ing-wen says that historical files are key in Taiwan’s path towards facing its difficult past.

Tsai was speaking at the opening of an academic conference Saturday. She said that transitional justice rests on truth, and that truth rests on historical files.

According to the UN, transitional justice is a society’s attempt to come to terms with its “large-scale past abuses”. In Taiwan, the term is generally used when talking about the violent 228 Incident of 1947 as well as its aftermath.

Tsai said that institutions like Academia Historica, where many government files are held, bear a great responsibility. She also said that she will continue pushing for government agencies to release and declassify more historic documents.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 24, 2017
By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

Regulations allow exploitative overtime hours to be imposed on transportation workers, labor groups said

yesterday in a protest outside the Ministry of Transportation and Communications building in Taipei on the one-year anniversary of the China Airlines strike.

More than 100 members of several transportation unions shouted slogans and threw balloons filled with red water at the ministry’s doors to symbolize the “blood and sweat” they say ministry rules force them to give to their employers.

“Last year, we fought for the right to rest and we are still fighting today, because the government’s and China Airlines’ promises of reform have fallen through,” Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union director Lin Hsin-yi (林馨怡) said.

Union board director Chu Liang-chun (朱良駿) cited a decision by China Airlines to cut employees’ rest time between transoceanic flights, along with rumors that the Civil Aeronautics Administration is considering reducing the ratio of flight attendants to passengers.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: June 24, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taking care of a little one is hard enough. Doing it in a foreign city, even an international

one like Taipei, adds a load of other problems, from deciphering bus routes to finding some appropriate weekend fun.

But we have some good news: There’s a blog for that.

A Toddler in Taipei was started by expat mom Sarah to give English speakers ideas about where to go and what to do with their tot around the capital.

It’s a very resource-rich site. For starters, there are posts about individual points of interest, like details about a three-story play center near the Minquan West Road MRT station and advice on taking tots to some of the city’s famous night markets.

A post on the Raohe Street market had good tips like “Admire all the lanterns on display on the way from the metro to the temple” and “Climb to the top of Ciyou temple, and look at the colorful roof decorations.”go-karts and cafes).    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/06/24
By: Elaine Hou and Scarlett Cai

Taipei, June 24 (CNA) Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said recently that although Taiwan’s diplomacy efforts have

suffered some setbacks due to China’s suppression, it still has “substantial” relations with many countries and this will be a major focus of its foreign relations.

In an interview with the Japanese newspaper the Nihon Keizai Shinbun, Lin said there have been some problems with communication across the Taiwan Strait, which has affected relations between Taiwan and China.

With regard to Panama, he said China exerted its economic power to undermine Panama’s diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

If China continues along that path, the formal relations between Taiwan and its remaining diplomatic allies would be at risk, Lin said, according to the full text of the interview that was posted Saturday on the Cabinet’s website.    [FULL  STORY]

Panama severed ties with Taipei earlier this month. Who are Taiwan’s remaining 20 diplomatic allies?

The News Lens
Date: 2017/06/23
By: Stellina Chen

Panama severed ties with Taipei in favor of Beijing earlier this month. The move took the number of

Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to 20. Do you know of these countries?

The Republic of Kiribati, the land of the Maneaba, is an island-nation in the central Pacific Ocean with a population just over 100,000. The president is Taneti Mamau.

The Republic of Marshall Islands, neighboring Kiribati and Nauru, is one of the only countries in the Asia-Pacific area with a female leader. The president is Hilda Heine.

The Republic of Nauru, formerly known as Pleasant Island, has been dubbed “Australia’s dumping ground for refugees” by The Guardian. The president is Baron Waqa.    [FULL  STORY]