Businesses encouraged to let Muslims observe end of Ramadan holiday

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/06/19
By: Renée Salmonsen, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Today the Ministry of Labor (勞動部) made a statement encouraging employers

to allow Muslim workers to have the day off this Sunday, June 25, to observe Eid al-Fitr, the final day of Ramadan.

The celebration of Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, namely with a “breaking of the fast” feast. Eid is a major religious holiday honored through tradition, not unlike Chinese New Year, Rosh Hashanah, or Christmas. Most importantly, it is a time to be with friends and family to celebrate peace and one’s beliefs.

According to Ministry of Labor statistics, of the 252,000 Indonesian workers in Taiwan, 85% are Muslim. The Ministry wants foreign workers to feel at home during this special time and strongly urges employers to give employees the day off as a gesture of respect.

The Taipei Department of Information and Tourism will host an all day party to celebrate Eid al-Fitr close to the Taipei Main Station, from 8-5. Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je will also be in attendance to pass out red envelopes to lucky participants, an Eid al-Fitr custom similar to Chinese New Year.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/06/19
By: Yang Shu-min and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, June 19 (CNA) Another fish farm in Taoyuan was confirmed Monday to have been infected with the tilapia lake virus (TiLV), bringing the total number to seven since the virus was first reported in the city on June 13, according to the Council of Agriculture (COA).

All seven infected fish farms are in the city’s Guangyin District and within three kilometers of the first infected site, according to the COA.

The city government has ordered inspections of all ponds within a three-kilometer radius of the site.

Once those are completed, farms within a five-kilometer radius of the site and others in neighboring Hsinchu will be checked to ensure the virus has not spread, the COA said.    [FULL  STORY]

CHOICESA meeting with the Chinese affairs office deputy director was the decision of a few expatriates, and not the norm for overseas Taiwanese, the OCAC vice minister said

Taipei Tiimes
Date: Jun 20, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

Lawmakers yesterday asked the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) to remove officials who

“disgraced the nation” last month when they reportedly met with Chinese officials at a gala to promote the unification of Taiwan and China.

Former OCAC minister Wu Ying-yih (吳英毅), OCAC members Wang Wei (王維) and Chou Shem-mong (周賢孟) and nine other council advisers on May 25 led a group of Taiwanese-Americans to China to meet with Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO) Deputy Director Tan Tianxing (譚天星), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers told a news conference yesterday.

The meeting, attended by Taiwan Benevolent Association of America (全美台灣同鄉聯誼會) members, was featured on Chinese government Web sites, with Tan telling the visitors that “a complete unification of the motherland is a shared hope of Chinese people in China and overseas.”

“When the nation is in a life-and-death struggle diplomatically, they are seeing eye to eye” with China, DPP Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said.    [FULL  STORY]

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

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Free iTaiwan wireless internet is now available on 80 percent of high-speed rail

compartments.

While installation work and testing still needs to be done before Wi-Fi will be available on the remaining 20 percent, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp. said the service would be up and running on all 34 of its trains before the 2017 Taipei Universiade kicks off on Aug. 19.

The company is also working to address weak signal strength in some compartments where the service is already being offered.

The high-speed rail is the latest mass rapid transit system to offer free Wi-Fi, following in the footsteps of the Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taoyuan metros.    [FULL  STORY]

 

The News Lens
Date: 2017/06/17
By: TNL Staff

What gods are commonly worshiped among locals?

Taiwan boasts great diversity and tolerance in its religious environment. Temples and small shrines, in addition to churches and mosques, are seen all over the island-nation.

But what gods are commonly worshiped among locals? And what do people pray to them for?
[FULL  STORY]

They were accused of illegal loans of over NT$5 billion and other charges.

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/06/18
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – SinoPac Holdings Chairman Ho Show-chung (何壽川) was held in custody

following prosecutors’ request to detain him over charges of illegal loans and violation of the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法), Taipei District Court ruled this afternoon.

Apart from Ho, Chang Chin-pang (張金榜), a manager at Yuen Foong Yu Paper Manufacturing Group (YFY, 永豐餘), and Liao I-min (廖怡愍), wife of the chairman of Sunpower Development & Construction Corporation (SDCC, 三寶建設), were also held incommunicado.

Ho and the other defendants are accused of having given illegal loans of over NT$5 billion to a non-operating paper company, J&R Trading Co.Ltd., through a re-investment offshore company, Grand Capital International Limited (CG), which is held entirely by SinoPac Leasing Corporation (永豐金租賃), a subordinate to SiniPac Holdings, since October 2009, prosecutors said.

In addition to the illegal loans, Ho gave loans to SDCC through SinoPac Holdings and to Star City, where his wife, surnamed Chang, had been a member of the board, both of which violated credit regulations among the same related parties or same affiliated enterprises, said prosecutors.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/06/18
By: Sunrise Huang and S.C. Chang

Taipei, June 18 (CNA) A Vietnamese man was killed and two others injured during a fight among them at a restaurant frequented by migrant workers in Xinzhuang, New Taipei, Sunday evening, police said.

The city’s Fire Department was alerted of a brawl in which a migrant worker suffered a 10-centimeter knife cut in the right chest. He died before rescuers were able to send him a hospital, police said.

During the brwal, a man by the family name of To (蘇) sustained a cut in the face and a stab wound in the back and another, surnamed Pham （范）, had his left arm cut. All three were sent to the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital in Banqiao.
[FULL  STIORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 19, 2017
By: Yang Chun-hui / Staff reporter

A coalition of civic groups yesterday urged the government to establish a Hoklo-language (also known

as Taiwanese) public television station to promote local culture and native language instruction.

Thirty-four groups led by the Taiwan Citizen Participation Association and the Taiwan Society called on the government not to ignore repeated calls for a station dedicated to Hoklo language and culture.

Although Hoklo is spoken by the majority of Taiwanese, the dominant media language is Mandarin, which hinders the development of Hoklo, Hakka and Aboriginal languages, the groups said.

While it is legitimate to prioritize the preservation of Hakka and Aboriginal languages with specialized media, the nation is gradually losing its Hoklo heritage and the language should also be protected, they said.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-06-17

Foreign Minister David Lee says the government will step up to the challenge of efforts by Beijing to

isolate Taiwan.

Lee was speaking early Saturday at Taoyuan International Airport, where he traveled to meet with Taiwanese diplomats returning from Panama. Panama announced Tuesday that it was breaking off diplomatic relations with Taiwan and recognizing Beijing instead. It was the second Taiwanese ally to switch sides in six months.

Taiwan’s ambassador to Panama, Miguel Tsao, was among those returning to Taiwan Saturday morning. Tsao had only arrived at his post a month before.

Panama’s decision to recognize Beijing leaves Taiwan with 20 diplomatic allies, twelve of which are concentrated in Latin America and the Caribbean. After news of the decision broke Tuesday, the foreign minister said that Taiwan will continue to work towards expanding its international space while eschewing “checkbook diplomacy”.    [SOURCE]