Taiwan News
Date: 2016-10-26
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – An unknown number of Taiwanese travelers might have been injured when a bus skidded in the snow and crashed in Iceland, but the three gravely injured were Chinese citizens, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday.
The hospital where the injured were treated refused to give out the nationality of the wounded without their consent due to local privacy regulations, MOFA said.

The bus was carrying 42 people, including an Icelandic driver and tour guide, with most of the passengers visitors from China, according to local media reports. Just before Tuesday noon, the bus reportedly skidded in the snow near Mosfellsbaer outside the capital Reykjavik and drove off an embankment where it came to rest on its side.    [FULL  STORY]

NON-COMMITTAL:Neither major party has made any commitment to push for or allow a floor vote on same-sex marriage, despite claims of support by legislators

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 27, 2016
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

Legislative Yuan caucus representatives yesterday declined to provide guarantees of a

final, general-assembly vote on rules allowing same-sex “marriage,” advocacy groups said yesterday, as related bills proposed by lawmakers across party lines head to the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee for an initial review.

Representatives of the Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association, Taiwan LGBT Family Rights Advocacy Association, Pridewatch Taiwan and the Awakening Foundation met separately with representatives of each of the legislature’s four caucuses.

While the New Power Party and the People First Party both pledged support, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus representatives were sympathetic, but noncommittal, Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association research associate Lu Hsin-chieh (呂欣潔) said, adding that meetings with homosexual advocates were delegated to DPP Legislator Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) and KMT Legislator Jason Hsu (許毓仁), who have both sponsored legalization bills.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: October 27, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Scuffles between lawmakers over a controversial labor bill forced a

legislative committee meeting to be aborted soon after it had begun Wednesday.

Lawmakers from opposing sides had started a competition to occupy the chairman’s seat long before the Legislative Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee was scheduled to start at 9 a.m.

When Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wu Yu-chin announced the start of the meeting at the scheduled time, the scuffles between the lawmakers became even fiercer, with one deputy from the main opposition Kuomintang heard screaming, “Don’t hit people,” according to the Central News Agency.

Wu, who heads the committee, was forced to call off the chaos-laden meeting one minute later.

The meeting was supposed to confirm a draft amendment to the Labor Standards Act that the committee approved on Oct. 5 after a review process that took only 60 seconds in a similarly chaotic fashion.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-10-26
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Former lawmaker Elmer Feng was sent to a jail on Wednesday morning to begin

serving his sentence of three years and four months for raping a Filipina 12 years ago.
In 2004, a Filipino caregiver accused Feng of raping her when she just finished bathing and was wrapped in a bath towel.

During the litigation, the Filipina settled with Feng for a payout of NT$800,000 and went back to the Philippines.

The criminal proceeding of the case lasted for 12 years and went through numerous appeals and retrials. Finally the Supreme Court on Oct. 7 upheld Taiwan High Court’s ruling that sentenced the former lawmaker to three years and four months for rape.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/26
By: Chiu Chun-chin and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Oct. 26 (CNA) Shen Jui-chang (沈瑞章), the chief engineer of the Omani-flagged

fishing vessel Naham 3, set foot in his motherland Taiwan Wednesday for the first time since his ship was hijacked by Somali pirates in 2012.

Upon his arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Shen kneeled on the ground, expressing his heartfelt gratitude to those who secured his release.

Shen appeared overwhelmed when he was surrounded by the media at the airport. Asked how he felt about returning to Taiwan, the sailor, in his early 60s, said that “for the moment, I just want to regain my health.”

He also said “thank you to those who saved me.”     [FULL  STORY]

With both nuclear power plants in northern Taiwan soon to shut down, a significant gap in power supply is looming.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/10/26
By: Timothy Ferry

Taiwan will get an early introduction to the dream of a “Nuclear-free Homeland” this

summer when two-thirds of its nuclear power plants will be offline, years ahead of schedule. The cooling pools at both the Jinshan nuclear power plant (NPP1) and Kuosheng (NPP2) are nearly filled to capacity with spent fuel rods. Without capacity to store spent fuel, the nuclear reactors cannot be refueled and must stop operating.

Kuosheng, whose two units were not set to be retired until 2021-2023, will be shuttered as early as November 20, when the fuel rods must be changed for a new cycle. Taipower has submitted a plan to the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) to convert the loading pools – normally used only during the replacement of spent fuel with fresh fuel – into temporary spent-fuel storage. The AEC has been reviewing the plan for the past three months and will likely need another three months to make its final assessment, according to Yeh Tsung-kuang (葉秩光), a professor of nuclear engineering at National Tsing Hua University and a consultant to Taipower on the project. Yeh is confident that the plan will be accepted, but notes that actually converting the loading pools into spent-fuel storage will require nearly a year of construction, during which time the Kuosheng plant will need to be offline.    [FULL  STORY]

DPP MAJORITY:The opposition party’s claims of ‘unconstitutionality’ and failure to recognize the ROC did not stop the ruling party from approving Tsai’s nominees

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 26, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved the nominees for Judicial Yuan president,

vice president and five grand justices, despite an attempt by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers to block the candidates for president and three grand justices.

While Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers arrived and gathered early yesterday morning at the Legislative Yuan to vote, their KMT counterparts assembled in the same place to shout slogans and wave banners saying that Hsu Tzong-li’s (許宗力) nomination as Judicial Yuan president was “unconstitutional” and accusing other grand justice nominees of “destroying the Constitution.”

The legislature voted to confirm the nominees for president and vice president yesterday morning, and those for the five grand justices in the afternoon.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: October 26, 2016
By: CNA

GUANGZHOU — A Taiwanese sailor released after being held captive by Somali pirates

for nearly five years was reunited with his wife and daughter in Guangzhou on Tuesday.

Shen Jui-chang, the chief engineer of the Omani-flagged fishing vessel Naham 3 that was taken over by Somali pirates in March 2012, arrived in Guangzhou at 5 a.m. while his wife and daughter arrived in Hong Kong on Monday night before heading toward Guangzhou.

In a telephone hookup with Tsai Cheng-yuan, a former legislator who helped raise funds to pay for the ransom, Shen said he wept uncontrollably when he saw his wife for the first time after five years.

He said he felt he had let down his wife and daughter but felt that was the fate arranged by the heavens.

Shen said he had the chance to be released earlier and was tempted to take the opportunity with pirates pointing AK-47 rifles at them every day.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-10-25
By: Yu Hsiao-han, Elizabeth Hsu, Lee Hsin-Yin and Evelyn Kao, Central News Agency

Labor groups took to the streets on Tuesday to protest a bill that would eliminate seven public holidays and take away employees’ right to two days off per weekend.

The groups made up of about 3,000 protesters set off from the headquarters of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and circled Taipei Railway Station before reaching the front gate of the Legislative Yuan, where about a dozen protesters clashed with police as they hurled eggs and tried to storm the legislative building, only to be stopped by police.

Three protesters who suffered cuts and bruises trying to climb a wall into the legislative building were detained, according to Tsai Han-cheng (蔡漢政), head of Jieshou police station, Zhongzheng First Precinct under Taipei City Police Department.    [FULL  STORY]