DEAL DONE:The bank’s New York branch was facing a bigger fine, but central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan helped facilitate negotiations to reduce it, the premier said

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 31, 2016
By: Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter

The Executive Yuan yesterday formed a supervisory task force to facilitate an investigation into a

Premier Lin Chuan, right, takes part in a press conference in Taipei yesterday about a breach of US money laundering regulations by Mega International Commercial Bank’s New York branch. Photo: CNA

breach of US money laundering rules by Mega International Commercial Bank’s (兆豐銀行) New York branch.

The task force, consisting of legal and finance experts — including lawyer Chen Chuan-yueh (高涌誠), former Judicial Reform Foundation director Kao Yung-cheng (高永成), former Bank of Taiwan chairman Lu Chieh-cheng (呂桔誠), former First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) chairman Michael Chang (張兆順) and former Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) chairmen Tsai Jer-shyong (蔡哲雄) and Wu Fang-chih (吳藩志) — is to gauge public opinion regarding the case and facilitate probes by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) and the Ministry of Justice.

“The Executive Yuan will get to the bottom of the case and hold accountable all of the people responsible,” Premier Lin Chuan (林全) told a news conference.

The FSC interviewed 28 Mega Bank officials, while the ministry is looking into suspicious accounts at the New York branch, Lin said, although little was revealed about the progress of the investigation.   [FULL  STORY]

REVISION:The National Audit Office said that there are only 21 international shows planned for this year, calling for better utilization of the establishment’s resources

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 30, 2016
By: Huang Chung-shan and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Taichung Metropolitan Opera House, which is to open on Sept. 30, will likely run a considerable

The Taichung Metropolitan Opera House, designed by award-wining Japanese architect Toyo Ito, is pictured on Thursday. Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times

deficit, the National Audit Office said, drawing the ire of city officials.

The Taichung City Government on Thursday last week donated the National Taichung Theater (Metropolitan Opera House) — designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning Japanese architect Toyo Ito — to the Ministry of Culture.

The theater is likely to operate at an annual deficit of NT$150 million (US$4.7 million), the office said in a report and made suggestions for improving the theater’s operations.

The report was based on last year’s assessment of the theater’s financial plan. It suggested that the theater completely overhaul its financial plan to improve the use of resources, adding that only 21 international performances are planned for this year.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: August 30, 2016
By: Yuan-Ming Chiao

TAIPEI, Taiwan — President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) vowed institutional reform of sports associations at

Premier Lin Chuan holds a Chinese Taipei flag signed by all members of Taiwan’s Rio Olympic squad, while posing with some of the athletes at a banquet in Taipei, Monday, Aug. 29. (Yuan-Ming Chiao, The China Post)

an event for the returning Rio 2016 Olympic squad at the Presidential Office on Monday.

She said that reforms would include the liberalization, institutionalization, professionalization and financial transparency athletic training expenditures.

The president also called for the introduction of standardized qualification criteria, as well as the establishment of independent refereeing procedures. Tsai said the reforms would give both athletes and their coaches the right to appeal decisions made by individual athletic associations.

On the eve of the Olympics, tennis star Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) dropped out of competition after a heated debate with the vice president of Taiwan’s Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, Tsai Szu-chuen (蔡賜爵).

Hsieh had called the Chinese Taipei Tennis Association’s (CTTA) selection system for coaches and players “unjust.”     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: August 29, 2016

A Taiwan student received a Human Rights Hero Award from Los Angeles-based nonprofit

Taiwan university student Liao Chien-hung (front right) receives the Human Rights Hero Award from Mary Shuttleworth, founder and president of Youth for Human Rights International, Aug. 27 at U.N. headquarters in New York. (CNA)

organization Youth for Human Rights International Aug. 27 during its annual summit at U.N. headquarters in New York, the first time a person from the country has been granted the honor.

Liao Chien-hung, a fifth-year medical student at China Medical University in central Taiwan’s Taichung City, was presented with the award by YHRI’s founder and president, Mary Shuttleworth, on the concluding day of the International Human Rights Summit. According to the group’s website, the honor acknowledges those whose courage and determination have “raised the bar on human rights in their respective nations and communities.”

The student was named one of this year’s two recipients for his long-term efforts to promote human rights awareness by, for example, delivering lectures in schools on the subject of bullying, as well as his participation in medical missions to Nepal. Liao was one of eight youth delegates representing the Chunghwa Association for Human Rights, the local YHRI chapter, at the event in New York.

Simone Hsu, founder of CAHR, delivered a presentation on human rights education in Taiwan’s schools at the three-day summit. During her address, she highlighted a survey conducted by the association indicating that 86 percent of students feel more confident speaking up for themselves and others in the face of bullying after learning about the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-08-29
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

A youth rights group Monday called on food businesses to eliminate their Time Definite Delivery (TDD) services to prevent students working as delivery people from risking their lives trying to deliver food or drinks within a time limit.

Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare (TAAYRW) said that according to statistics compiled by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from 2013 to 2016, traffic accidents that involved youth under 20 years old concentrated on the food and beverage businesses. Young people working part-time delivering food and drinks by motorbike are susceptible to traffic accidents under the pressure of TDD.

The TAAYRW said they had seen three traffic accidents on TV news involving young delivery workers during work in less than two months into this year’s summer vacation. It is evident that delivery by motorbike under the pressure of TDD has higher risks of sustaining occupational injuries, the group added.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: August 29, 2016
By: CNA

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A two-day kite festival, which concluded Sunday at Nanliao Fishing Port in Hsinchu City, attracted an estimated 48,000 kite enthusiasts from around Taiwan, according to the city government.

This year, the festival had been significantly expanded into a full-scale event to include a variety of activities. In addition to the conventional flying of kites in the shapes of various marine creatures, the festival also included a spectacular night show of LED kites, the city government said Sunday.

On the kite field, enthusiasts from 12 kite clubs from around the country, including Asian Kite Forum, were out in force, strutting their stuff during the event, drawing countless spectators, according to the city government.

Meanwhile, due to the city government’s successful promotional efforts, crowds from Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli and Keelung were attracted to the festival in an attempt to win numerous prizes up for grabs during the festival.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/08/28
By: Milly Lin and S.C. Chang

Taipei, Aug. 28 (CNA) Premier Lin Chuan’s (林全) plan to reactivate the No. 1 generator at the First

former Presidential Advisor Rex How (CNA file photo)

Nuclear Power Plant in June was prompted mainly by a power shortage “crisis” engineered by Taiwan Power Company (Taipower), according to former Presidential Advisor Rex How (郝明義).

In a Facebook post on Saturday, How suspected that Taipower deliberately put 10 percent of the nation’s aging electricity generators on an annual repair schedule on May 31, when the temperature hit 37.3 degrees Celsius, creating a near-shortage of power supply.

As the nation was on the brink of power rationing, Lin ordered Taipower to reactivate the No. 1 reactor at the First Nuclear Power Plant which had already been idled for 18 months, How said.

The decision triggered protests from anti-nuclear power groups which have been calling for a nuclear-free Taiwan, a proposal that has become the policy of President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration.    [FULL  STORY]