Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/22
By: Chang Jung-hsiang and Lilian Wu

Taipei, March 22 (CNA) Health authorities in Tainan, southern Taiwan confirmed

Tuesday a new indigenous dengue fever case in the city, just one month after it lifted a warning on the mosquito-borne disease Feb. 15.

The Department of Health has started an investigation and began spraying mosquito insecticide after confirming the case that day.

The patient, aged 63, lives in the city’s Annan District and has not recently traveled overseas or to neighboring Kaohsiung, another city that was hard-hit by dengue fever last year.

The man had shown symptoms of fever and fatigue March 15, which were initially considered to be influenza, until he was later notified as a possible dengue fever case.     [FULL  STORY]

Other Taiwanese stuck, but not injured: MOFA

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-22
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – One Taiwanese diplomat was slightly injured during a series of bombings at the airport and subway stations of the Belgian capital Brussels Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Early Tuesday local time, or Tuesday afternoon Taiwan time, two bombs went off at Brussels Airport, according to reports killing at least a dozen people and injuring several dozens more. Shortly afterward, at least one subway station was reportedly also hit by attacks. The total death toll reached more than 30.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said that a new staff member at its Brussels office was injured as he was traveling by subway on his way to work. His clothes caught fire, but he only suffered minor injuries and was accompanied home to rest, MOFA said.

Two other Taiwanese citizens were unharmed but stuck because of the shutdown of the subway system following the attacks. One Taiwanese traveler at the airport called in to say he was unharmed, though he had been forced to abandon his passport at a check-in counter, which was now off-limits, reports said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/22
By: Kuo Chih-hsuan and S.C. Chang

Taipei, March 22 (CNA) An Indonesian government vessel that fired upon a

Taiwanese fishing boat Monday left the boat with 12 bullet holes, with two bullets passing through the cabin, the Liuchiu Fishermen’s Association said Tuesday.

In what it called “a detailed investigation report,” the association in Pingtung — where the two Taiwanese fishing boats involved in the latest incident are registered — said the two fishing boats were not fishing illegally and were fired at without warning.

Both the Sheng Te Tsai and the Lien I Hsing No. 116 had full loads of fish and were on their way to Singapore at 6 degrees 15 minutes north latitude and 97 degrees 40 minutes east longitude, at the northern entrance of the Strait of Malacca, just over 100 kilometers from the northeastern coast of Sumatra, at around 3 a.m. Monday, according to the report.

It was dark at the time, but the Lien I Hsing No. 116 was suddenly fired at four or five times while being lit up by a spotlight aboard the Indonesian patrol vessel, said the report, adding that the vessel did not appear to have been hit.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: March 22, 2016

President Ma Ying-jeou said March 19 that his visit to Guatemala and Belize

strengthened bilateral ties and mutual understanding between the ROC and the two Central American diplomatic allies.

The seven-day trip helped consolidate relations on the basis of viable diplomacy, Ma said. “This pragmatic policy expanded Taiwan’s international participation under the guidelines of legitimate purpose, lawful process and effective implementation.”

The president made the remarks upon touching down at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at the head of a delegation comprising government officials and business leaders.

This was Ma’s 12th and final overseas visit during his two four-year terms in office. He met with five heads of state in the region on the trip, and received warm welcomes during his two U.S. stopovers. During the first in Houston, the city of Point Comfort declared March 13 President Ma Ying-jeou Day in honor of his presence in Texas.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 23, 2016
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

The Taiwan Railways Administration yesterday said that it is monitoring the

number of headrest covers on the seats of its Hello Kitty-themed train after more than 300 of them were stolen by passengers during the train’s inaugural run between Taipei and Taitung on Monday.

The administration’s first Taroko Express train featuring the popular cartoon character became an immediate sensation earlier this week. However, the administration found that a large number of the headrest covers on the seats, which have Hello Kitty designs printed on them, went missing after the train’s inaugural journey was completed yesterday evening.

“The covers are available in two different patterns. To replace some of the missing ones, we had also prepared 120 backup covers just in case,” Catering Services Department general manager Liu Chien-liang (劉建良) said. “However, by the end of the day only 168 were left, 328 of them went missing.”

Asked why so many of the headrest covers were stolen, Liu said that perhaps the passengers wanted to take one of each design and keep them as souvenirs. The administration did not expect that most of the headrest covers would be taken away, he said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-21
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Japan-based Marubeni Corporation, mechatronics engineering contractor of the Taoyuan International Airport MRT, will have to pay both fines and damages for repeatedly delaying the opening of the line, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Jian-yu said in response to a legislator’s question on Monday.

Kuomintang Legislator John Wu said at the Legislature’s Transportation Committee that the airport MRT line was first scheduled to open in 2009 as the earliest, but the opening has so far been delayed six times, making this country’s public project an international joke. Wu later asked Chen about the fine Marubeni is slapped with for causing the delays.

In response, Chen said that according to the contract, Marubeni will have to pay a fine of about NT$2.5 billion for missing the deadline. In addition to the fine, the MOTC will include the damage claim form the Taoyuan Metro Corp and seek damages from Marubeni, Chen said.     [FULL  STORY]

‘SABOTAGED’:In a separate incident, Indonesia said eight Chinese fishermen caught in what it said was its waters would be processed in accordance with Indonesian law

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 22, 2016
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Two Taiwanese fishing boats reported that they were fired upon by what they

believed to be an official Indonesian vessel while in the Strait of Malacca early yesterday.

The owner of the Sheng Te Tsai, registered in Pingtung County’s Liouciou Township (琉球), surnamed Lee, said he received a satellite telephone call from the skipper, Lin Nan-yang, shortly after 5am to say that his ship and the Lien I Hsing No. 116 were being shot at.

In one of the messages sent from the ships, crew members said they believed the vessel belonged to the Indonesian military, because they saw “2804” on the vessel, which is used for official vessels of the Southeast Asian nation.

The two Taiwanese ships, which were heading to Singapore to offload their catches and stock up on supplies, reported their location at 6 degrees 15 minutes north latitude and 97 degrees 40 minutes east longitude respectively when the shooting took place.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/20
By: Keoni Everington

Taipei, March 20 (CNA) Despite having a highly literate, educated population employed in a world-class IT industry, many in Taiwan’s society still retain a bewildering myriad of colorful superstitions.

Beyond the well-documented fears of uttering the number four, whistling at night, placing chopsticks upright in rice and the plethora of things one shouldn’t do during ghost month and when pregnant, there is a vast profusion of even more prohibitions many still observe during their daily lives Taiwan.

The following is but a short list of the wide array of Taiwanese superstitions:

1. Don’t pick up a red envelope on the street.     [FULL  STORY]

Voice of America
Date: March 21, 2016
By: Dan Friedell

The alcoholic drink most people call Scotch has been around for hundreds of

years.

According to the Scotch Whisky Association of Great Britain (known as the SWA), there is an entry in Scotland’s tax records from 1494 that shows an order of malt used to make 1,500 bottles of something called “water of life.”

The SWA says this means distilling was already a part of daily life more than 500 years ago.

Whisky is produced all over the world, and there are many variations.

For example, some whisky is aged in barrels that used to hold wine, beer or bourbon. Other than in Scotland, there are well-known distillers the United States, Japan, Australia, France and other countries.

Judges have been choosing the best whiskies in the world each year since 2007 at an event called “World Whiskies Awards.”

The title for world’s best single malt whisky was won by Scotland four times, Japan three times and Australia once. Then in 2015, there was a big surprise.

The best whisky in the world came from Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]