CONSTITUTIONAL CONUNDRUM:The nominee for Judicial Yuan president stepped down as a grand justice nearly five years ago and some have questioned his eligibility

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 02, 2016
By: Su Fang-ho and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Presidential Office yesterday sparked a constitutional debate by nominating former grand justice

Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) to be president of the Judicial Yuan.
The Presidential Office nominated Hsu and Supreme Court Judge Tsai Chung-tun (蔡?燉) as vice president of the Judicial Yuan and has forwarded their nominations, along with five others for the Council of Grand Justices, to the Legislative Yuan for ratification, Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said.

The nomination of Hsu and Tsai was based on their practical experience and academic renown, Chen said, adding that the five grand justice nominees — National Chia Yi University professor Hsu Chih-hsiung (許志雄), Judicial Yuan Deputy Secretary-General Chang Chiung-wen (張瓊文), National Taiwan University law professors Chan San-lin (詹森林) and Huang Chao-yuan (黃昭元), and human rights lawyer Huang Juei-min (黃瑞明) — were selected by a committee vote after five meetings.

Hsu Tzong-li said that he accepted his nomination because he believes it is not unconstitutional, seeing as he stepped down as a grand justice nearly five years ago.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: September 2, 2016
By:The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Taipei City government has reportedly initiated procedures to terminate its contract with Taipei Dome contractor Farglory Group (遠雄集團), amid a conflict that has heavily dented Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) approval ratings.

With only a week remaining before a Sept. 8 deadline imposed by City Hall for Farglory to submit an updated construction plan, a local newspaper reported on Thursday, Sept. 1, that officials are preparing to terminate the build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract for the arena.

According to the Chinese-language Apple Daily, Farglory presented the city government with a 114-page improvement plan Tuesday, replete with updated safety measures, but city officials remained unconvinced.

City government officials described the plan’s content as “largely the same as before,” saying the firm had showed no signs of compromise and had even failed to include draft drawings.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-08-31
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

An Indonesian migrant worker could face charges of allegedly killing her baby she just gave birth to and dumping him in a meal leftovers bin.

The Yangmei Precinct of Taoyuan Police Department announced on Wednesday it had cracked a case that involved a dead new-born baby found in a leftovers bin.

A pig farmer’s son in Xinwu District, Taoyuan City, reported the case to the police after he found a dead newborn baby wrapped in plastic bags inside a leftovers bin a couple days ago. The leftovers are used to feed the pigs. Police investigation found that the bin was shipped by a company from Taipei City to the pig farm.

The investigation led to 950 leftovers collection spots at residential communities along 10 routes in Taipei, where the bin possibly came from, police said.

Review of surveillance video of the communities found that a female migrant worker from a community in Taipei’s Zhongshan District was carrying a suspicious bag and wandering about the place at 5:49 a.m. on Aug 28. The video led to 30-year-old Indonesian migrant worker Titik Suryani. Police went to the community on Wednesday noon to question her.     [FULL  STORY]

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY:The 64-year-old banker, who is currently visiting the US, is the first official to take blame for Mega Bank’s compliance failures at its US branch

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 01, 2016
By: Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

State-run Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) chairman Shiu Kuang-si (徐光曦) yesterday tendered

his resignation amid mounting criticism over alleged conflicts of interests in the aftermath of a compliance failure that occurred while he was president of Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行).

Mega Financial is to call a board meeting today to elect an acting chairperson until the Ministry of Finance, the largest stakeholder in all state-run financial institutions, names a successor after approving Shiu’s departure.

Shiu, who assumed the Mega Financial chairmanship on Aug. 16, resigned one day after Premier Lin Chuan (林全) set up a supervisory panel to probe the breach of US money laundering rules by Mega Bank’s New York branch.

Mega Bank is the main subsidiary of Mega Financial.
“As the compliance failure took place during my term as Mega Bank president, my role to help is discredited with my supervisors also questioned,” Shiu said in his resignation letter.

Shiu said he would quit all positions at the state-run conglomerate and cancel trips to San Francisco to face a probe in Taiwan to protect his reputation.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: September 1, 2016
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Public bike rental system YouBike experienced its worst-ever crash since

operations began in Taipei in 2009, affecting over 140,000 commuters nationwide.

The system will take one to two days to repair, according to Gaint Bicycles, the company that produces and operates the bikes.

According to Giant’s YouBike division spokeswoman Vicky Liu (劉麗珠), the company was running a routine system update remotely at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday morning when a software system abruptly broke down.

As many as 17,317 digital parking poles at 778 YouBike stations blacked out, locking approximately 22,000 bikes at the stations..

The incident affected over 140,000 commuters in Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung and Changhua County. Between 100,000 and 110,000 people were affected in the Taipei area alone.

Rental stations in Taipei and New Taipei remained dysfunctional following attempts at repairs, a statement released Wedenesday evening by Giant’s YouBike division read.     [FULL  STORY]

‘We thought this was a pretty positive story and I was willing to make the sacrifice.’

The News Lens
Date: 2016/08/30
By: Olivia Yang

Taiwanese band 911 (玖壹壹) on Aug. 26 posted a video on their Facebook page in response to the criticism it has been receiving for the controversial rap music video the band produced with Malaysian rapper Namewee (黃明志).

▶︎ See also “Taiwan-Malaysia Rap Video Depicting Prophet Muhammad Sparks Outrage”
▶︎ See also “Namewee: Don’t Go After Taiwanese Band”

All three members of the band appear in the near four-minute video. KEN-G (建志), the member who plays the Prophet Muhammad in the music video, says, “Our agency issued two statements for us earlier, but both were deleted because they were not what we wanted to state. What I’m about to say next is what all three of us wish to say.”

KEN-G specifically brings up the shot of him as the Prophet Muhammad holding a gun and says the reason he did so was because Namewee proposed the idea.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-08-30
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A court in Indonesia sentenced four Taiwanese to death after they were found in possession of 26 kilograms of drugs, reports said Tuesday.

While appeals were still possible, the experience with the Indonesian justice system showed that a reversal was unlikely, while the Southeast Asian country also has no qualms about executing foreign citizens, reports said.

The four suspects were reportedly holding methamphetamines, with a court in the Indonesian capital Jakarta handing out the sentences last week, according to media reports.

The four men ranged in age from 21 to 40 and had been arrested with another man last November.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/08/30
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Aug. 30 (CNA) Almost half of the nearly 57,000 people in prison in Taiwan as of the end of July

were there because of drug offenses, as the country saw a sharp increase in drug-related cases in the first seven months of 2016, according to a government report released Tuesday.

According to figures released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), 27,778 out of the 56,921 prisoners incarcerated in Taiwan at the end of July were serving time for drug convictions.

The total number of jailed drug offenders was up 2.9 percent from the same time a year earlier, resulting from a higher number of new drug convicts (6,250) entering prison in the first seven months of 2016 than in 2015 (5,567), the DGBAS said.

A total of 51,000 cases related to illegal drugs were reported from January to July, a 20 percent increase from the same period a year earlier, and 27,000 people were prosecuted for drug offenses, up 20.9 percent year-on-year, the DGBAS figures showed.     [FULL  STORY]