Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/13
By: Chen Wei-ting and Ko Lin

Taipei, April 13 (CNA) A Canadian-built DHC6-400 Twin Otter 19-passenger twin

turboprop airplane operated by Taiwan’s Daily Air, crashed while landing at Orchid Island (Lanyu) Airport at about 4:32 p.m. on Thursday.

Flight 7511 was flying from Taitung City to Orchid Island. Two crew members and 17 passengers were on board, including one infant.

Four were treated for minor injuries when the plane skidded off the runway and hit a fence, local firefighters said.

Among those injured, three passengers have already returned home while the other is in a local health center for a further checkup.    [FULL  STOREY]

UTILITIES PRIORITY:Premier Lin Chuan said that the government would ensure a stable supply of electricity and water while it carries out measures to curb pollution

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 14, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

The public and private sectors are to spend NT$200 billion (US$6.6 billion) on measures

aimed at reducing air pollution, with a goal of lowering levels of PM2.5 — fine particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less — by 18 percent by 2019.

The government said that NT$36.51 billion has been earmarked to target lowering PM2.5 levels from 22 micrometers per cubic meter to 18 micrometers per cubic meter by 2019 and to reduce the number of “air pollution red alerts” by 47 percent, or from 997 per year to 528 per year.

State-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is to invest NT$10.11 billion to reduce power plant emissions by 2019 and another NT$22.15 billion afterward, while the private sector is expected to invest between NT$168.4 billion and NT$247.7 billion in air pollution controls.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: April 14, 2017
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

TAIPEI, Taiwan — After a two-month hiatus, Uber Taiwan returned Thursday with a

service that matches customers with licensed professional drivers instead of with its own stable of private car owners.
At a Taipei press conference, Uber General Manager for Asia-Pacific Mike Brown thanked the government — and Transportation Minister Ho Chen Tan (賀陳旦) in particular — for helping the firm transform into a “legal” business.

The reformed Uber positions itself as a “ride-matching” service that connects customers with drivers from more than a dozen local car rental companies, including taxi operators.

All partner firms are registered with the government as public transportation operators, have business licenses and must abide by the government’s current public transportation regulations.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/04/12
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)–The 2017 Fulong International Sand Sculpture Festival is

scheduled to take place from May 6 to July 9, 2017 as jointly organized by the Northeast Coast and Yilan National Scenic Area Administration under the Tourism Bureau and the Fullon Hotels.

The organizers held a press conference on Wednesday in Taipei to announce the main sculptures of this year’s event and giveaways. Taiwan’s tourism goodwill ambassador OBear was there at the news conference, dancing with performers to promote this year’s event. The organizers said it will have sand sculptors carve out a sand castle 13 meters in height and a sand tunnel as the centerpieces.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/12
By: Chen Ting-wei and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, April 12 (CNA) A flight attendant for EVA Airways was confirmed Wednesday as

being infected with measles, and is known to have had contact with 170 people during the incubation period, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said the patient, in her 20s, served in the elite class of EVA Flight B62 that departed from Vienna for Bangkok from last Wednesday to Thursday, and then in the elite class of Flight BR212 that departed from Thailand for Taiwan last Friday.

During the incubation period, the patient had visited France, Singapore, Beijing and Hangzhou in China, and Bangkok, Lo said.    [FULL  STORY]

‘BAD CASE’:Lee Ming-che’s wife said third-party broker Lee Chun-min told her that her husband’s arrest was the result of the security forces ‘missing their mark’

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 13, 2017
By: AP, BEIJING

Lee Ching-yu (李淨瑜), the wife of detained human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明

哲), said remarks by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) substantiated an accusation that Beijing has its compradors in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), after the office yesterday confirmed that it had commissioned a third party to “relate the relevant situation” to Lee Ching-yu and pass letters from Lee Ming-che to her and his parents, while warning other groups not to intervene in the case.

Outside intervention would complicate matters and harm already tense relations between Taipei and Beijing, the office said.

TAO spokesman An Fengshan (安峰山) said that China had passed letters from Lee Ming-che, who is under investigation for endangering China’s national security, to his wife and parents.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: April 11, 2017

“Ex Change,” an award-winning documentary short about a used shoe donation

campaign helping economically disadvantaged Kenyans stamp out parasitic infections and live longer lives, is spotlighting Taiwan’s major role in the initiative and enabling its founders Republic of China (Taiwan) national Yang Yu-jen and his Canadian wife Kara Remley to attract more support for the cause.

According to Yang, many children in the rural regions of Kenya must walk barefoot on rocky dirt roads for hours to attend school. Without shoes, they are susceptible to chigoe fleas, or chiggers, which live in warm, dry soil and burrow into the skin to feed on blood. The bite of the one-millimeter insect causes a variety of ailments, including mild to severe ulceration.

Yang, who lives with his wife in northern Taiwan’s Taoyuan City, learned about the threat posed by chiggers from his father-in-law Allen Remley, a construction technician and former pastor living in Toronto. Remley and likeminded philanthropists build clinics, churches and schools in impoverished regions of the world, including Kenya.
[FULL  STORY]

I-Mei Foods CEO Luis Ko and Pingtung County magistrate Pan Men-an work together to better the lives of native Taiwanese in Pingtung and the health of Taiwanese consumers

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/04/11
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

PINGTUNG (Taiwan News) – Global trade has been blamed for local job losses and

decreases in local crop diversity and the situation worries a Taiwanese food giant. Known for its strong dedication to food safety, I-Mei Foods has also delved into the procurement of agricultural produce from local farmers in recent years and, furthermore, is partnering with indigenous farmers in Pingtung County to procure fresh red quinoa without a middleman so as to guarantee farmers a decent and stable income.

In a contract signing ceremony held on Tuesday in Pingtung, I-Mei Foods CEO Luis Ko wore native costumes and was warmly greeted with a dance by Taiwanese indigenous children living in Sandimen Township, Pingtung County. In his opening speech, Ko confessed that he couldn’t speak any of the island’s indigenous languages, though he has been living on the island for decades and has native Taiwanese ancestry.

Several battles over the past centuries and prolonged socioeconomic disadvantages shattered native Taiwanese confidence. Invited to attend the signing ceremony aimed to help native Taiwanese financially through contract farming, Deputy Minister of Council of Indigenous People Iwan Nawi said she was glad to see more support from local conglomerates and urged the native Taiwanese to work together and have more confidence in themselves.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/11
By: Liu Chien-bang and Ko Lin

Taipei, April 11 (CNA) The annual twin-city forum between Taipei and Shanghai will likely be held in June this year.

At a press conference held Tuesday morning, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) responded to reporters that the city has since been talking with Shanghai officials on the possibility of staging the Taipei-Shanghai forum in June to avoid a conflicting schedule with the Taipei Universiade, which will kick off in August.

The speculation on the forum date was stemmed when Taipei Deputy Mayor Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) returned from a recent visit to Shanghai. Although there has not been a word of confirmation from the Chinese side, head of the Shanghai’s Taiwan Affairs Office Li Wenhui (李文輝) will apparently arrive in Taipei on Friday to hold discussions on the subject.    [FULL  STORY]