Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-14
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Part of the online soil liquefaction potential inquiry platform crashed soon after the system was launched on Monday noon by the Central Geological survey (CGS).

The platform is divided into two editions, with one for the general public and the other for professionals.

People can look up the soil liquefaction potential of a certain place by entering the address into the platform. The potential will be shown in three levels–high (red), middle (yellow) or low (green).

However, the edition for the general public crashed 20 minutes after the online platform was launched online, which indicates a great many people are concerned about the soil liquefaction potential of where they live.     [FULL  STORY]

Daily Mail
Date: 13 March 2016
By: Keiligh Baker for MailOnline

Religious groups in Taiwan have accused McDonald’s of ‘promoting homosexual behaviour’ after the company released an advert in which a young man comes out to his father in a McCafe.

The video, which was uploaded to YouTube, shows a young man and his father having coffee in a Taiwanese branch of McDonalds when he writes on his cup ‘I like boys’ and shows it to the older man.

Although the father initially storms off he soon comes back and the pair reconcile when he writes ‘I accept that you like boys’ – but the advert has been slammed by religious critics for promoting ‘gay issues’.

Fox News reports the Alliance of Taiwan Religious Groups for the Protection of Family has slammed the advert, accusing it of promoting homosexual behaviour.     [FULL  STORY]

BBC
Date: 3-13-2016
By: Cindy Sui

The night before Huang Wen-kung was executed, he wrote five letters to his

family, including his five-month-old daughter whom he had never seen.

It was the first and last time he had communicated with her.

“My most beloved Chun-lan, I was arrested when you were still in your mother’s womb,” said the 1953 letter.

“Father and child cannot meet. Alas, there’s nothing more tragic than this in the world.”

His daughter only got the letter 56 years later.

“As soon as I read the first sentence, I cried,” Huang Chun-lan said. “I finally had a connection with my father. I realised not only do I have a father, but this father loved me very much.”

The letters were among some 300 papers handed to Ms Huang’s daughter

when she applied for documents about her grandfather from government archives in 2008.
That led to archive workers finding personal writings, mostly letters to families, that another 179 political prisoners had written before they were executed during Taiwan’s “White Terror” period of suppression.

Tens of thousands of people suspected of being anti-government were arrested, and at least 1,200 executed, between 1949 and 1992.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-13
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Central Geological Survey (CGS) will launch an online inquiry system from 10 AM on Monday to allow people access to information regarding soil liquefaction potential.

The system is divided into two editions, with one for the general public and the other for professionals. People can look up the soil liquefaction potential of a certain place by entering the address into the system. The potential will be shown in three levels–high, middle or low.

Areas open for checking include Taipei City, New Taipei City, Yilan County, Hsinchu County, Hsinchu City, Tainan City, Kaohsiung City and Pintung County, according to the CGS.

The soil liquefaction data is a result of a national, large-scale assessment, which is preliminary and only serves as reference materials, the CGS said. Soil liquefaction potential of an individual building lot still needs to be determined by geological drilling and related assessments, the CGS added.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/13
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Christie Chen

Taipei, March 13 (CNA) Couples comprising one Taiwanese partner and a foreign national accounted for about 20 percent of the divorces in Taiwan last year, according to data from the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).

The total number of divorces in Taiwan last year was 53,000, an annual increase of 0.5 percent, the statistics showed.

Of that number, 11,000, or 20.8 percent, involved a Taiwanese citizen and a non-national, which was a 3.3 percent decline from 2014, according to the statistics.

In 2010, the number of divorces involving a Taiwanese citizens and foreign spouse accounted for 26.2 percent of the total in Taiwan and was a 15-year record high. The major factor was a 24.4 percent spike in the divorce rate among Taiwanese-Chinese transnational couples, statistics showed.     [FULL  STORY]

ONGOING BATTLE:The appeal is the latest in a drawn-out legal battle between the Ministry of National Defense and family of late intelligence officer Yen Hsien-chun

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 14, 2016
By: Chang Wen-chuan, Lo Tien-fu and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporters, with staff writer

The Ministry of National Defense is appealing a January ruling by the Taipei

District Court that ordered the ministry to pay the family of late intelligence officer Yen Hsien-chun (閻獻君) for interest owed on missed compensation totaling NT$1.7 million (US$51,593).

In 1956, then-19-year-old Yen was dispatched to Hong Kong by her superiors in the Military Intelligence Bureau, infiltrating China to conduct covert missions against its government.

According to her brother Yen Chung-nan (閻崇楠), Yen Hsien-chun was recruited the previous year, when her family was evacuated to Taiwan from the Dachen Islands (大陳群島) off the coast of China’s Zhejiang Province.

China expressed anger on Friday after the U.S. State Department said it had authorized the sale of two surplus U.S. Navy frigates to Taiwan for $190 million, subject to congressional approval, amid rising tension in the South China Sea.

China considers self-ruled Taiwan a wayward province, to be brought under its

control by force if necessary. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after the Chinese civil war.

U.S. arms sales to democratic Taiwan always attract strong opposition from Beijing, though they have not ended up causing lasting damage to ties between China and the United States or between China and Taiwan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China had lodged a protest with the United States.     [FULL  STORY]

Nuclear energy has gradually be replaced by coal on the island, which has several seismic faults running through.

Telesur
Date: 12 March 2016

Dozens of civic groups protested against nuclear power in Taipei Saturday,

rekindling debate in Taiwan over the future of energy on the island.

The protesters demand the government to shut the three nuclear power plants in operation and halt the construction of the fourth nuclear power plant.

Protesters referenced the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster in Japan, which was sparked by a tsunami and caused about 1,600 evacuation-related deaths.

The demonstration concentrated outside the Presidential Palace in Taiwan, with yellow and black umbrellas, speeches and various banners that warned of the dangers of nuclear energy.     [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2016/03/10
Translated by Shin-wei Chang

A recent poll shows 35% Hongkongese surveyed support Taiwan’s

independence, which is the highest record in the last 21 years. What’s more, up to 67% of young people in Hong Kong support Taiwan’s independence.

A latest survey conducted by the Public Opinion Programme of The University of Hong Kong shows that there are 35% of respondents in Hong Kong that support Taiwan’s independence, indicating a growth of 6% compared to results last year. 67% among the younger respondents aging between 18 to 29 years old support Taiwan’s independence.

The survey interviewed 1,004 residents in Hong Kong from February 19 to March 3. 52% of the people interviewed oppose the idea of Taiwan’s independence, which is more than the 35% that support the idea. However, the net value for support has risen to -17%, hitting a highest record in the last 21 years since a -6.8% in 1995.

The report also reveals 47% of Hongkongers support Taiwan in rejoining the UN, while only 33% have faith in the applicability of “one country, two systems” to Taiwan. Moreover, only 28% of the respondents have confidence in cross-strait reunification.     [FULL  STORY]