The China Post
Date: February 21, 2017
By: Kuan-lin Liu

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Netizens were left spluttering into their skinny lattes Monday after

coffee giant Starbucks announced a raft of price hikes.

The chain, operated in Taiwan by Uni-President, said it would raise the prices of 29 of its drinks, citing an increase in supply costs.

The price of Starbucks’ Coffee of the Day is set to go up by NT$10, with lattes, teas and chocolate beverages seeing a NT$15 hike.

The price of Frappuccinos is set to increase by between NT$5 and NT$20, depending on flavor.

Following the announcement, it didn’t take long for Taiwan’s coffee addicts to hit the internet to voice their anger.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2017/02/19
By: Steven Crook

Taiwan’s southern half is a stronghold of Taiwanese Holo culture, and it’s where you will

find the ancient former capital, Tainan, as well as Kaohsiung. At the same time, the south has intriguing pockets of Hakka culture and tradition waiting to be explored.

These days, Taiwan is one of the safest places in the world for tourists and expatriates. But it wasn’t always so peaceful. Uprisings were frequent, while settlers battled indigenous people for control of the best land. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Taiwan was rocked by a series of rebellions, and because there was no police force as such, many communities established militias to keep their enemies at bay.

Fighters from Hakka towns in the south gained a reputation for bravery when helping imperial troops defeat rebels opposed to the Qing Dynasty (which ruled Taiwan between 1684 and 1895). These loyalists formed six units (liudui in Chinese), and because of them “Liudui” is now a collective name for the Hakka settlements in Kaohsiung and Pingtung.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/02/19
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The weather in Taiwan was expected to be warm Sunday and Monday before

temperatures beginning to dip in the next few days due to the expected arrival of a cold front on Thursday that could send temperatures down to as low as 12 degrees Celsius in some coastal areas of northern Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.

As the seasonal northeasterly winds become weaker, partly cloudy to sunny skies could be seen in most parts of the island on Sunday, with occasional showers expected only in coastal areas of eastern Taiwan, the CWB said.

Highs on Sunday could rise to between 26 and 27 in western Taiwan and 24 to 25 degrees in eastern Taiwan, the bureau said. However, the bureau has warned of big fluctuations in temperature between daytime and nighttime hours.  [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/02/19
By Yang Su-ming, Evelyn Kao and S.C. Chang

Taipei, Feb. 19 (CNA) Two cases of the highly pathogenic H5N6 avian influenza

infection were confirmed in Hsinchu and Tainan Sunday, bringing the total number of H5N6 cases around the country to 17 since Feb. 6, when Taiwan reported its first case, according to statistics released Sunday by the Council of Agriculture.

The council’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said the latest two cases involve a chicken that was discarded in Hukou Township of Hsinchu County that was confirmed to have contracted H5N6 virus and a pheasant in Qigu, Tainan that was confirmed to have been infected with both H5N6 and H5N2.

Earlier in the day, the bureau reported three new cases confirmed Saturday, including one found on a chicken farm in Yunlin County, one on a goose farm in Chiayi County and the other involving ducks at a slaughter house in Yilan County.  [FULL  STORY]

ACCIDENT AFTERMATH:Chou Yung-hui and Chen Yen-po were only named to their posts in August last year, but have said they are willing to accept responsibility and quit

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 20, 2017
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

The heads of the Tourism Bureau and the Directorate-General of Highways (DGH) have

offered their verbal resignations to take responsibility for a deadly tour bus accident that occurred one week ago today, but Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) has not accepted the resignations, a senior official said yesterday.

Tourism Bureau Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) and DGH Director-General Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯) have indicated that they want to take full responsibility for the accident that killed 33 people and injured 11, would accept any punishment handed down to them and are planning to submit their written resignations soon, Ministry of Transportation and Communications Deputy Director Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said.

Chen, a highway and railway management veteran, became the head of the Directorate-General of Highways in August last year after leading the National Freeway Bureau for several years.   [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: February 20, 2017
By: Christine Chou

72.8% of businesses predict a 3% increase in personnel hiring costs

The smaller and more labor-intensive a business is, the more likely an increase in its hiring costs

SHIFT WOES

67.4% of businesses had trouble scheduling work shifts

A new rule requires that employees must have one day off every seven consecutive days

OVERTIME OUTRAGE

67.8% of businesses called the new rule on overtime ‘unacceptable’

OT is now measured in 4-hour blocks, so OT between 4 and 8 hours is counted as 8 hours    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-02-18

A new art exhibition has opened at Tainan’s Wuyuan Cultural Center to mark 70th

anniversary of the 228 Incident.

The incident was a bloody crackdown against an anti-government uprising that took place on February 28, 1947. It’s impossible to tell how many people died as a result of the mobilization, but academics put the figure at somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 people.

The 228 Incident ushered in a decades-long period that became known as the White Terror. Some estimate that more than 140,000 people were caught up in the White Terror. It is thought that as many as 3,000 or 4,000 people were executed and many others were imprisoned.

The paintings and sculptures in the exhibition are designed to conjure up the period and to remind visitors to guard against another 228 Incident.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/02/18
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A three-member Taiwanese parliamentary delegation led by ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) to India has gotten on Beijing’s nerves, which lodged a complaint with India, and on Friday, a Chinese state media outlet’s editorial said that Taiwan will risk losing chances to join major international events such as the World Health Assembly and the International Civil Aviation Organization in the absence of the 1992 Consensus and the “one China” policy.

Chinese state-run media the People’s Daily (Renmin Ribao人民日報) lambasted that Taiwan’s DPP government has no intention to honor the 1992 Consensus and the one China policy as the most agreed consensus, but instead takes advantage of Donald Trump’s foreign policy unpredictability to make gains.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/02/18
By: Yeh Tzu-kang and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Feb. 18 (CNA) The lantern display will continue until April 19 in Yunlin County’s Beigang Township, despite the close of the 2017 Taiwan Lantern Festival on Sunday, an official said Saturday.

The Yunlin County government decided in a meeting held that day that all the lanterns currently being exhibited in Beigang will be preserved, making the extension possible, said Chang Sheng-chih (張勝智), chief of the township.

Extending the lantern display will allow visitors to take part in annual events celebrating the birthday of the sea goddess Matsu at Beigang’s well-known Chaotian Temple, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

HIGH ALERT:Several cities warned people they face stiff fines for feeding wild birds, with Taipei saying that exposure to the birds’ excrement raises infection risks

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 19, 2017
By: Staff Writer, with CNA

With assistance from the military, animal quarantine authorities culled more than 22,000

chickens on a farm in Yunlin County’s Shueilin Township (水林) yesterday, as part of efforts to fight avian influenza.

Since late December last year, bird flu has been discovered in 17 poultry farms in the county, with over 150,000 birds having been culled, Yunlin County Animal and Plant Disease Control Center Director Liao Pei-chih (廖培志) said.

Outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N6 strain this month have put the poultry industry on high alert, he said.    [FULL  STORY]