The China Post
Date: February 17, 2017
Buy: The China Post with CNA

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Lines snaked around Taipei Main Station on Thursday morning as

The last metro train of the day is packed with excited passengers returning from Taoyuan Airport to Taipei on Thursday. The trial run will end on March 1 and full operations at discounted fares will begin from March 2. (CNA)

prospective passengers waited for their turn to board the long-anticipated 51-km metro linking Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Taipei.

Thursday was the first day of the Airport MRT’s public trial run, in which individuals were offered free rides. Some passengers staked out spots as early as 1 a.m., but the excitement was palpable and the mood giddy.

For the next two weeks, free boarding passes will be given out daily on a first-come, first-served basis at 7:40, 9:40, 11:40 and 13:40 at all of the line’s 21 stations.

They will be given a touch pass similar to existing electronic tickets used on metro lines in Taipei, which will be used to enter and exit each gate.    [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2017/02/15
By: James Baron

While the towers are unlikely to scoop an award for aesthetics, they provide a glimpse of

Photo Credit: James Baron

a period of Taiwan’s modern history that, like their embrasures, expands to offer a macroscopic view when probed.

Among the paddy fields of Fanpo Village (番婆村) in Fuxing Township (福興鄉), Changhua County (彰化縣), lurks a strange building. At first glance, it’s hard to know exactly what this bell-shaped concrete tower could be. Given its location, those who happen upon it might take it for an old granary or storehouse. A corrugated iron hut sucking the side of the building like an angular, metallic parasite adds to this impression. This is surely a local farmer’s tool shed, added some time later?

The guess as to the tower’s function also makes sense in light of the history of this region of central Taiwan. As evidenced by another local heritage site – the well-preserved Fuxing Barn (福興穀倉) – Changhua was something of a rice basket under the Japanese. Along with neighboring Yunlin County (雲林縣), it was famed for its Zhuoshui Rice.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/02/15
By: Wang Shwu-fen and Elizabeth Hsu

Kaohsiung, Feb. 15 (CNA) Kaohsiung City on Wednesday issued an order for 3,033 flu-infected chicken carcasses from a farm in Yunlin County to be sent to a rendering plant.

The batch of chickens had been sent from a farm in the central Taiwan county to a slaughtering facility in Kaohsiung but several of them began dying before they could be slaughtered, which led to suspicions that they were infected with bird flu, said Hsu Jung-bin (徐榮彬), head of the Kaohsiung City Animal Protection Office.

Tests on the carcasses confirmed Wednesday that the chickens had died of avian flu, which has hit several poultry farms in Yunlin and other areas of Taiwan, Hsu said.
[FULL  STORY]

DAMAGE:While chairperson candidates Hau Lung-bin and Steve Chan criticized the spate of mass membership applications, Hu Wen-chi said: ‘All professions are equal’

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 16, 2017
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

With the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) still reeling from a report alleging 307

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin yesterday in Taipei speaks to a group of retired generals at the launch of a support group for his bid to be party chairperson. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times

membership applicants had backgrounds in organized crime, it was hit with a fresh blow yesterday, as local media outlets reported that it had received a bulk application from hostesses who work at a Taichung nightclub.

An unidentified KMT official had sought to influence the results of the party’s election for KMT chairperson by securing memberships for hostesses of a major nightclub in Taichung, local media outlets reported.

The KMT said that applicants from all walks of life are welcome to join the party as long as the application is submitted in accordance with the party’s regulations.
[FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: February 16, 2017
By: Kuan-lin Liu

Panama City — Cathay General Hospital’s medical team successfully completed three

Cathay General Hospital’s medical mission team begins operating on local patients in need of a total knee joint replacement in Panama on Tuesday, Feb. 14. (The China Post photo)

total knee joint replacements (TKR) for low-income patients at San Miguel Arcangel Hospital in Panama on Tuesday.

The nine-person team, which includes three orthopedic surgeons, is currently in Panama on a nine-day medical mission to provide free TKRs to 15 low-income people in the country.

The surgeries began at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday at the local hospital and the first to receive the replacements were two women and one man, aged 70, 71 and 76.

A representative from the Taiwanese embassy in Panama chaperoning the medical team said each surgery averaged about 1.5 hours.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: February 15, 2017
By: James Lo and Stephanie Chao

The family of Kang Yu-hsun (康育薰), a driver who was killed along with 32 tourists in a bus crash on Monday, yesterday condemned a travel agency for overworking him.

The travel agency dismissed the accusations, claiming that Kang had received sufficient rest before the fatal trip.

Kang had been the driver during a one-day cherry blossom sightseeing tour organized by Tieh Lien Hua Travels (蝶戀花旅行社) to Wuling Farm in Greater Taichung.

On the return trip, his bus overturned while banking left on an exit ramp off the side of another exit ramp connecting National Freeway No. 5 to southbound lanes of National Freeway No. 3. The crash injured 11 and killed 33 including the driver.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/02/14
By: Elaine Hou and Chiu Kuo-chiang

Taipei, Feb. 14 (CNA) Taiwan expressed gratitude Tuesday for China’s condolences for

A grief-stricken relative of a bus crash victim talks to reporters in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times

the families of the dead and the injured in a Taipei tour bus crash a day earlier that left 33 people dead and 11 others injured.

On behalf of the government, the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said that it has extended its sympathy to the families of the victims and the injured and has been dealing with the aftermath. An investigation into the cause of the accident is also underway, it added.

In a statement, the Taiwan Affairs Office under China’s State Council said it was very concerned about the accident, and it expressed its deepest condolences to the families of the dead and sympathy for the injured.

The statement came even though China has cut off its official communication channels with Taiwan amid strained relations across the Taiwan Strait.

Suspect spiked drinks for three South Korean passengers: prosecutors

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/02/14
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A taxi driver accused of raping a woman tourist from South

Taxi driver Chan detained as rape suspect last month. (By Central News Agency)

Korean and drugging two of her friends should serve 15 years in prison, prosecutors said in their indictments Tuesday.

A suspect named Chan reportedly admitted he injected powerful tranquilizers into strawberry drinks and then administered them to three South Korean women traveling in his taxi on January 12.

He had first transported them to Jinguashi, where he prepared the drinks and handed them over to his passengers. By the time they then arrived at their next destination, the Shilin night market, two of the women had fallen asleep. He let the third one out, but took the two unconscious women in his cab to an isolated alley where he raped one of them, the Shilin District Prosecutors Office said.

The women later felt that something was wrong with their clothing and with the drinks, and they alerted the police.    [FULL  STORY]

I was the only one who believed in it,’ says Mike Sung, the 26-year-old who introduced .FotoNota to Taiwan.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/02/14
By: Olivia Yang

‘The Xinyi shopping district in Taipei not only boasts a throng of department stores, restaurants and hotels, but also Taiwan’s first Instagram printer, FotoNota. Sitting in a quiet corner on first floor of the Eslite bookstore Xinyi branch, the slim machine is usually crowded by young people waiting in line to get their Instagram photos printed out at NT$50 (US$1.60) for two.

“I thought I had found a vending machine that would make life easier,” laughs Mike Sung (宋曜宇), the 26-year-old who introduced FotoNota to Taiwan. “I had no idea it would get me into all this chaos.”

FotoNota is a vending machine that prints Instagram photos in a Polaroid format (3″x4″). It was created in Barcelona, Spain, and can be seen in the U.S. and Europe, but Taiwan and Singapore are currently the only countries in Asia where FotoNota is available. Sung’s Taiwan company is called FotoVita, “the photo life.”    [FULL  STORY]