Home fined over low staffing levels

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-06
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Six people were reported dead and one in critical condition after a fire swept through an eighth-floor retirement home in the New Taipei City district of Xindian Wednesday morning.

A total of 28 people, also mostly residents, were injured after a reported short-circuit in a room inside the eighth-floor retirement home. Only two members of staff were present at the time to care for about 40 residents, making a rapid evacuation of the elderly people difficult, reports said.

The blaze started at 7 a.m. and was extinguished within 45 minutes, according to firefighters. A total of 60 ambulances arrived at the scene to help evacuate the injured.

Three of the victims were found dead inside the room where the fire reportedly started, while the other fatalities died at the hospital, reports said. According to investigators, first indications showed that a short-circuit in an electrical appliance might have caused the fire.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: July 5, 2016

Culture Minister Cheng Li-chiun conferred to nine individuals and one musical group certificates

MOC Minister Cheng Li-chiun (seated, center) joins the recipients of this year’s national living treasure honors at Taichung Cultural Innovation Industrial Park July 2 in central Taiwan. (Courtesy of MOC)

honoring them as Taiwan’s top traditional arts and cultural heritage preservationists, also known as national living treasures, during a Ministry of Culture-staged ceremony at Taichung Cultural Innovation Industrial Park July 2 in central Taiwan.

The park, a renovation and revitalization of an old winery, embodies one of the five pillars of new MOC Minister Cheng’s cultural policy: Linking and Redisplaying the Historic Memory Between the Land and its People. Without these national living treasures quietly working hard to carry forward tradition and passing traditional arts and skills to the next generation, they will eventually disappear one day and become history, according to the MOC.

Addressing the ceremony, Cheng said, “Traditional arts, originally started from daily living, gradually become a way of witnessing history, thus a culture representing an era.

“Due to its special location and the arrival of immigrants, Taiwan’s traditional arts have formed a unique cultural style well worth being preserved and carried over generation by generation.”

HARD-HITTING:The act designates 19 activities as ‘major violations’ that can incur fines of up to NT$30 million and see fishing licenses suspended for up to two years

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 06, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

The legislature yesterday passed the Act Governing Distant Water Fisheries (遠洋漁業條例) as well

The catch from a distant-water fishing vessel is lifted in Kaohsiung on July 1, 2014. Photo: Huang Chien-hua, Taipei Times

as amendments to the Fisheries Act (漁業法) and the Ordinance to Govern Investment in the Operation of Foreign Flag Fishing Vessels (投資經營非我國籍漁船管理條例), tightening regulations and raising the fines for illegal fishing, “fish laundering” and other significant violations.

The EU on Oct. 1 last year issued a “yellow card” to Taiwan following the discovery of a Taiwanese fishing vessel violating shark finning regulations in international waters and threatened to issue a “red card,” which could prompt an EU embargo on Taiwanese seafood exports, which would seriously damage the country’s fishing industry, should the nation fail to improve its legal framework and take corrective measures.

The government has since made an effort to work with the legislature to draft a bill governing the nation’s distant water fisheries. The Executive Yuan came to an agreement with the legislature on the draft bill on Monday last week and the legislative caucuses reached a final consensus on Wednesday last week.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/05
By: Wang Cheng-chung and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, July 5 (CNA) The Legislative Yuan was surrounded by two groups of protesters Tuesday, with one opposing and the other supporting a proposed amendment that would end a requirement that foreign workers leave Taiwan after working here for three years.

The revision to the Employment Service Act, which passed an initial review by the Legislature on June 22, would allow foreign workers who have worked in Taiwan for three years — the longest contract allowed — to be re-hired without having to leave the country for at least one day.

Workforce Development Agency Director-General Huang Chiu-kuei (黃秋桂) has said the measure would have several benefits, including saving employers or foreign workers travel expenses.

But there is no clear direction yet on what the new measure would mean for the brokers’ fees foreign workers have to pay or what kind of system would be in place if migrant workers want to stay in Taiwan but want to work for another employer.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 5, 2016
By: Christine Chou,Special to The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Hundreds of demonstrators rallied outside the Legislative

Red Cross volunteers hold a banner reading “Yes to law amendments, no to abolishment” during a protest in front of the Legislative Yuan on Tuesday morning, July 5. （Carol Ho, special to The China Post）

Yuan Tuesday against the proposed abolishment of the Red Cross Society Act, urging that amendments be made instead.

The Red Cross estimated that more than 600 rescuers, lifeguards and administrative volunteers from regional branches nationwide attended the rally. They urged for the debate over the act’s fate to be “depoliticized” and for the end of what they say are smears aimed at discrediting the group’s humanitarian efforts.

“The Red Cross is not a privileged organization, nor is it related to transitional justice,” Chairwoman Wang Ching-feng (王清峰) said.

Critics have long accused the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China of benefiting from historical connections with the former Kuomintang government. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party said last week that it would not rule out “working overtime” to abolish the legislation as part of a broad push for “transitional justice.”

Wang said that if legislators amended outdated regulations in the act in an objective manner, she would have fulfilled her role as chair and would step down.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-04
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

As deputy mayor of the host city of the 2016 International Children’s Games (ICG), Hou You-yi encouraged New Taipei City’s delegation at the flag presentation ceremony on Monday to do their best to shatter records and promote civil diplomacy as well at the ICG.

The 2016 ICG will take place at stadiums located in Xinzhuang, Banqiao, Taishan and Shulin districts in New Taipei from July 11 to July 16. The ICG is for young athletes between the ages of 12 and 15.

Hou encouraged the home team to outperform themselves and take opportunities to show foreign athletes around the host city and explore its beauty.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/04
By: M.Y. Hsu and Flor Wang

Taipei, July 4 (CNA) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Monday that it will help the

(From the Facebook page of Nakuru County News Online)

affected families handle the aftermath of an accident in Kenya in which a Taiwanese man on honeymoon was killed and his wife injured by a falling tree in a national park.

The man, identified as 30-year-old Juan Chun-hui (阮俊輝), was killed on the spot, while his wife Chen Po-ting (陳柏廷), 29, was injured and has been hospitalized, according to Taiwan’s representative office in South Africa.

The driver of the jeep was also injured, according to reports which however did not identify the nationality of the person.

Taiwan’s representative to South Africa John C. Chen (陳忠), a secretary, and police officer Chen Yi-ming (陳逸明), who were all on an official visit to Nairobi, immediately rushed to the scene of the accident at the Lake Nakuru National Park some 200 kilometers away, the ministry said in a statement.     [FULL  STORY]