Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/11/29
By: Elizabeth Hsu

A district court’s ruling last week that acquitted Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co. (頂新製油) of charges related to violations of the country’s food safety law sparked a widespread outcry in the society, triggered doubts about enforcement of the law, and shook people’s trust in the judicial system.

Changhua prosecutors were seeking a 30-year prison sentence against former Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Chairman Wei Ying-chung (魏應充) and severe penalties for other executives of the company, which was accused last year of putting sub-standard cooking oil and other food products on the market. The acquittal was a slap in the face for prosecutors.     [FULL  STORY]

Video of man verbally abusing Briton leads to soul-searching over how foreigners are viewed

Straits Times
Date: November 29, 2015
By: Li Xueying Regional Correspondent In Hong Kong

A video clip showing one of their own in a protracted xenophobic

rant has prompted a bout of introspection over just how welcoming the Taiwanese are of foreigners, in a society that prides itself as being among the world’s friendliest.

Over eight minutes during a subway ride in Taipei last month, a security guard hurled repeated verbal abuse at British teacher Christopher Hall and his Taiwanese girlfriend. Mr Hall has lived in Taiwan for a decade.

The encounter, which was recorded by Mr Hall’s girlfriend – who was not identified – went viral after he posted it online about three weeks ago.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-11-29
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taiwan recorded the highest quantities of combined drug seizures

last year worth 4,339.5 kilograms in total, the Ministry of Justice said Sunday.

Beginning from January to August this year, local authorities already seized 3,577.1kg-worth of narcotics in the country, six times higher than the same period in 2014, it said, revealing that “Category 4” drugs alone accounted for 2,243.5kg in total.

The nation’s justice ministry has a four-tier system with which to classify illicit drugs. For instance, opium is rated as a “Category 1” narcotic drug, along with morphine, heroin and cocaine. Meanwhile, marijuana is rated as “Category 2”, along with amphetamines, MDMA, and Lysergide (LSD), where offenders can be sentenced to a prison term ranging from seven years to life, and subjected to a fine of up to NT$10 million. Category 4 drugs include 5-MeO-DIPT, Zolpidem, Alprazolam (Xanax), and Diazepam (Valium).     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/11/29
By: Claire Chen and Jeffrey Wu

Taipei, Nov. 29 (CNA) A 21-year-old woman died Sunday of severe

burns and complications five months after she was injured in a flash fire at a New Taipei water park.

Wu Wen-chi’s (吳玟錡) passing brings the death toll from the June 27 fire to 15, most of them in their early 20s.

Wu, one of 500-plus victims of the fire, suffered burns to 87.5 percent of her body and had skin and tissue surgery the day after she was injured, said Taipei Veterans General Hospital, where she was treated.

Over the following months, however, she developed multiple complications, including septic shock and adult respiratory distress syndrome, the hospital said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Nov 30, 2015
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter Staff reporter

Former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) condition has stabilized

after he had a minor stroke, but he is to remain hospitalized under observation, Lee’s office said yesterday.

“Lee was sent to the Taipei Veterans General Hospital in the early hours of Friday after experiencing numbness in his right hand,” Lee’s office director Wang Yan-chun (王燕軍) said in a statement issued yesterday afternoon.

Following a series of examinations, Wang said the hospital concluded that Lee’s symptoms were caused by an embolism that occurred in the small peripheral arteries of the left hemisphere of his brain.

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/11/28
By: Chen Ja-fo and Jay Chen

Taipei, Nov. 28 (CNA) A Vietnamese woman has been arrested in

Taiwan for allegedly killing her boyfriend and dismembering his body after a quarrel, according to the police.

Nguyen Thi Soi, 33, was picked up at her workplace in Kaohsiung City as she was preparing to return to Vietnam Friday, police said.

She faces charges of killing Kieu Van Manh, 43, before chopping up his body and disposing of the remains in a ditch.

The two had come to work in Taiwan separately earlier in the year, police said, adding that Kieu was slain apparently for wanting to break up their relationship.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date:  Nov 29, 2015
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

Ahead of the UN’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, left, puts an award around a guide dog’s neck at an event in Taipei yesterday.  Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

Thursday next week, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday conferred medals on seven Labrador retrievers in recognition of their service to visually impaired people and talked about his theory on why it is important to care for people in need.

Ko said in the opening speech at the awards ceremony that the city government planned to give awards to 10 guide dogs, but three of them were absent.

“What happened to the other three? Did they take a day off or are they on duty?” Ko asked, prompting laughter from the audience.     [FULL  STORY]