He turned himself in to Taipei Police Department’s Zhongzheng First Precinct on Monday afternoon..

Taiwan News
Date: 017/04/17
By: Wendy Lee , Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Former Taipei City Councilor Lee Cheng-lung (李承龍) admitted

to beheading the statue of the highly respected Japanese civil engineer Yoichi Hatta (八田與一), the city’s police department confirmed Monday.

The bronze statue, located at the memorial park in Tainan City overlooking the Wushanto Water Reservoir (烏山頭水庫), was found decapitated yesterday, just three weeks before the annual memorial service, which is due to take place at the park on May 8. The act of vandalism has caused widespread anger among Taiwanese.

Lee took to Facebook early Monday to write about the incident, confessing that he has cut off the head of the statue of the celebrated “father of Wushanto Water Reservoir.”

“Don’t mean to hide the truth. I did it,” he wrote in a Facebook post.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/17
By: Hsieh Chia-chen and Y.F. Low

Taipei, April 17 (CNA) Taiwan is prepared to donate US$500,000- worth of demining

equipment to the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Vice Minister of Defense Cheng De-mei (鄭德美) said Monday.

The equipment, which includes protective gear and precision instruments, will be shipped as soon as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs completes the related coordination work, Cheng told lawmakers during a legislative hearing.

The confirmation came after Stanley Kao (高碩泰), Taiwan’s top envoy to the United States, attended a March 22 meeting in Washington of the U.S.-led global coalition to counter the militant group also known as Islamic State (IS).    [FULL  STORY]

A FREE LUNCHWu said he would exhaust his wealth buying people banquets if anyone could prove him guilty of corruption or illegal dealings over the past 40 years

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 18, 2017
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

Former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who is running for the Chinese Nationalist

Party (KMT) chairmanship, yesterday sought to assuage allegations of bribery against him by staking his political career on his innocence, pledging to bow out of politics if he is found guilty.

Wu made the remarks on the sidelines of a news conference in Taipei for the launch of a social media account, again denying allegations by former KMT vice chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢), who is also running for chairman, that KMT chairperson and representative candidates have offered money or banquets in exchange for votes.

“I have absolutely nothing to do with the alleged bribery. I loathe vote-buying and would never stoop so low as to do it myself. I have never even offered banquets,” Wu said, adding that he is willing to exhaust his wealth in treating people to banquets if he is found to have done anything illegal.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: April 18, 2017
By: Kuan-lin Liu

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The price-to-income ratio, a number that indicates the price of

purchasing real estate as a multiple of annual household income, is now at 9.35, an all-time high, according to the Construction and Planning Agency of the Ministry of the Interior.
The situation is even more dire in the Greater Taipei area, with

Taipei seeing a price-to-income

ratio of 15.47 and New Taipei of 12.7.

The agency released its data for housing affordability for the third quarter of 2016 on Monday, which found a price-to-income ratio that experts would find unacceptable.

Experts have previously stated that property prices that were 5 to 7 times the average household income for the purchase of a 30-ping new property were at a reasonable ratio.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/16
By: Liu Shih-yi and S.C. Chang

Taipei, April 16 (CNA) Taiwan High Court has rejected a request from a Romanian

involved in a bank card fraud case to return to him confiscated money so he can support his girl friend who is about to give birth as well as children with his former wife.

The man was among eight Romanians and one Briton who were sentenced by a district court in January to jail terms ranging from 4 to 20 years for being members of an international counterfeit bank card ring that was indicted for using fake bank cards to withdraw an estimated NT$60 million (US$1.9 million) from accounts belonging to European bank customers.

The convict requested the high court, which is hearing their appeal, give back to him NT$89,000 which was impounded by police last year as he must pay alimony to his ex-wife and to his girl friend who relies on him for financial support.    [FULL  STORY]

‘DELIBERATE ACT’:It would not be difficult to repair the statue, as the Chia-Nan Irrigation Association had taken a mold in case it was damaged, sources said

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 17, 2017
By: Wang Yen-ping and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

A statue of Japanese engineer Yoichi Hatta near Tainan’s Wushantou Reservoir (烏山頭

水庫) was found decapitated in an apparent act of vandalism, the Taiwan Chia-Nan Irrigation Association said yesterday.

Hatta is dubbed the “father of the Chianan Irrigation System” for his contributions to the development of irrigation in the Chianan Plain (嘉南平原) in southern Taiwan by building the Wushantou Reservoir during the Japanese colonial era.

An association member exercising in the area at about 6am saw that the statue’s head was missing, association president Yang Ming-feng (楊明風) said, adding that he told workers at the reservoir to call the police.

Police arriving at the scene surveyed the damage and collected information.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan has announced new emission reduction targets and policies to combat air pollution but environmental groups say they still do not go far enough.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/04/15
By: Rosemary Chen

Taiwan’s new air pollution policy aims to reduce PM2.5 levels by 18 percent by 2019

with public and private sectors planning to jointly spend NT$200 billion (US$6.6 billion), announced Premier Lin Chuan (林全) on April 13 at a press conference.

To reduce emissions from transport, the government will phase out more than 1 million two-stroke scooters and 80,000 aging diesel trucks, while refitting 38,000 diesel trucks with diesel particulate filters. It also plans to subsidize the replacement of 6,000 inefficient steam boilers nationwide and implement stricter emissions controls for industrial areas.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
017/04/15 23:27
By: Sophia Yang, Judy Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Top stories this week included Taiwan becomes first Asian country to ban eating dogs and cats; Uber returns to Taiwan; Taiwan discusses detained human rights activist case with AIT; Coldplay surprises fans with impromptu song about Taiwan. Watch our weekly roundup video below to find out more:    [SOURCE]