Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/21
By: Wang Shu-fen and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, April 21 (CNA) Every pilot working for Taiwanese airlines will have to take an alcohol test before flying starting early June, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said on Friday.

The new regulation affects over 2,800 pilots, including those in Taiwan’s general civil aviation transportation sector, as well as those working in common aviation industries and at local flying schools, the agency said.

Currently, Taiwan’s aviation companies perform alcohol tests only on about 30 percent of their pilots, according to the CAA.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: April 22, 2017
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

TAIPEI, Taiwan — In the first such case in Taiwan, the Food and Drug Administration

(FDA) has detected the known carcinogen dioxin in eggs at a concentration exceeding the legal allowable limit.

The source of the contamination has yet to be confirmed, but citizens are urged not to panic and to continue purchasing eggs as usual as the farms in question have been sealed off and their eggs have been ordered off the shelves, officials said.

According to the FDA, preliminary reports showed that the eggs containing excess levels of dioxins were produced from three egg farms in Changhua, namely Chun Yi (駿億), Hung Chang (鴻彰) and Tsai Yuan (財源).

The farms raise approximately 80,000 to 90,000 hens in total, producing an average 65,000 eggs per day.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2017/04/20
By: Edward White

In an exclusive interview, Lee Ching-yu talks to The News Lens.

Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜), wife of the Taiwanese human rights activist detained in China, knows all about the human suffering that comes at the hand of despotic regimes. As a researcher, she has spent years reading secret documents from Taiwan’s murderous Martial Law period.

Now, as her husband Lee Ming-che (李明哲) sits in a jail cell, somewhere in China, the horrors of the past have come tearing into her life.

But she refuses to let the brutal realities of her husband’s situation beat her into submission. History, she says, gives her strength.    [FULL  STORY]

Man was 41 years old: reports

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/04/20
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A driver of a Taipei Mass Rapid Transit train collapsed soon

after arriving at Nanshijiao (南勢角) Station and died later in hospital, reports said Thursday.

The man, surnamed Lee, 41, had just driven a train on the Xinlu Line from Huilong to the final station, Nanshijiao in New Taipei City’s Zhonghe District, around 2:29 Thursday afternoon. He reportedly stepped out of the train before switching off the lights because he felt unwell.

He collapsed almost immediately, with a cleaner sounding the alarm. One of the passengers waiting for the next train was a nurse who helped out to conduct cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), but the driver showed no signs of life, reports said. An ambulance with a member of the MRT staff took him to nearby Shuang Ho Hospital, but doctors there pronounced him dead on arrival. Lee showed no apparent injuries, but because his medical background was not known to them, doctors said they could not pinpoint any cause of death.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
2017/04/20
By: Hsieh Chia-chen and Elaine Hou

Taipei, April 20 (CNA) Taiwan has measures in place to evacuate Taiwanese

expatriates from South Korea if necessary, Defense Minister Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) said Thursday, amid heightened tension on the Korean peninsula.

The Ministry of National Defense has planes and ships ready to evacuate Taiwanese expatriates should the need arise and has already been in talks with other related agencies, Feng said during a hearing in the Legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.

Feng made the remarks in response to questions by lawmaker Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) as to whether the ministry has the capability to evacuate the roughly 20,000 Taiwanese expatriates in South Korea, given the rising tension on the Korean peninsula.
[FULL  STORY]

RETIRING:Chief of the General Staff Chiu Kuo-cheng turned down an invitation to extend his term, saying that the system of elevation of rank should be respected

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 21, 2017
By: LoTien-pin, Chen Wei-han and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writer

The Ministry of National Defense yesterday confirmed President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文)

appointment of Deputy Minister of National Defense Lee Hsi-ming (李喜明) as the nation’s new chief of the general staff, among a reshuffle of positions at the top of the military and the ministry.

Lee is to fill the position left vacant by Chief of the General Staff Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正), who assumed the post in December last year, but will reach the retirement age of 64 for the position by the end of this month.

Chiu turned down an invitation to extend his term, saying that the system of elevation of rank should be respected and that he would be retiring at the end of this month, sources who requested anonymity said.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: April 21, 2017
By: The China Post news staff

The Cabinet passed a draft bill Thursday that paves a path for not just foreign students

but also fresh overseas graduates to take up internships in Taiwan.

The bill requires legislative approval to come into effect.

Internships: Not Just for Students

Lin Chih-mei (林至美), the director of the human resource department at the National Development Council (NDC, 國發會), said on Thursday that Taiwan has had approximately 2,300 foreign students interning at large enterprises since 2004.

If passed, the bill pave the way for new university graduates who wish to intern in Taiwan, she said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 20, 2017
By: Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNA

The nature of the ongoing pension reform protests and the 2014 Sunflower movement

protests are different and incomparable, former Sunflower movement leader Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) said on Facebook yesterday.

Chen made the comments after people protesting against pension reform outside the legislature in Taipei yesterday held banners with the slogan: “If the Sunflower [movement] can, why can’t we?”

The slogans referred to Sunflower movement members occupying the main chamber of the Legislative Yuan from March 19 to April 10, 2014, to protest Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators attempt to force through the passage of the cross-strait service trade agreement.

The Taipei District Court declared on March 31 that the actions of the 22 Sunflower movement members were in line with the concept of “civil disobedience” and found them not guilty of inciting others to commit a crime, obstruction of police officers in the discharge of their duties and other crimes. The verdict can be appealed.
[FULL  STORY]

BLOCKADE:A number of lawmakers and legislative staffers had run-ins with protesters who tried to stop them from entering the legislative building

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 20, 2017
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

Pension reform protesters yesterday claimed victory after a substantive review of the

proposed bill was postponed, even as a dramatic thinning of ranks raised questions about their ability to mobilize.

Several hundred demonstrators marched on the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) headquarters in Taipei for a brief victory rally after DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康), coconvener of the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee, announced that the pension reform bills review would be postponed until two public hearings are held next week.

“This result is the fruit of all our hard work today,” National Federation of Teachers’ Unions director-general Huang Yao-nan (黃耀南) said, taking credit for the DPP’s backing away from a rumored attempt to force a quick “whole package” vote instead of a line-by-line review.

Plans to hold public hearings are “acceptable for the time being,” Huang said, promising to reignite a “siege” around the Legislative Yuan when substantive review begins.    [FULL  STORY]