SORRY FOR NOTHING:Hung Meng-chi apologized for the trouble he had caused the Executive Yuan, but denied allegations KMT lawmakers were offered special allowances

Taipei Times
Date:  Oct 01, 2015
By: Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Minister of Culture Hung Meng-chi (洪孟啟) yesterday tendered his resignation, despite

Minister of Culture Hung Meng-chi announces that he tendered his resignation at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Pan Shao-tang, Taipei Times

dismissing a report alleging the ministry offered Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers special allowances in order to have its proposed budget passed without issue.

Next Magazine yesterday reported the ministry, having part of its budget frozen last year, proposed in May to apportion NT$2.5 million (US$75,465) to each KMT lawmaker to ensure the passage of the ministry’s budget this year.

The report alleged, showing what it said to be copies of ministry documents, that top ministry officials made a resolution that lawmakers could apply for the subsidy as long as they are KMT legislators, and that KMT lawmakers sitting on the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee were to be funded first.

Hung denied the allegation, saying that, while the proposal was tabled in an internal meeting, in which only he, the chief secretary and three deputy ministers were present, it was immediately rejected based on a principle of administrative neutrality.     [FULL  STORY]

Sep 29, 2015

Typhoon Dujuan brings torrential rain, high winds and chaos as it hits parts of China and Taiwan.

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-09-29
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Four guilty verdicts and a fine were overturned by a court

Guilty verdicts overturned in ASE pollution case. Central News Agency

Tuesday in the case of pollution of a river in Kaohsiung by Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc.

The world’s largest chips testing and packaging group was accused of having released untreated wastewater from its K7 plant into the Houjing creek, thus possibly polluting the water as well as nearby rice fields. Following the accusations, the factory was shut down for a while beginning in late 2013.

ASE was accused of having falsified documents and neglected repeated warnings and fines, even going to the trouble of diluting samples in order to mislead inspectors, prosecutors said.

Four company officials had been found guilty and ASE had been fined NT$3 million (US$90,000) by the Kaohsiung District Court, but on Tuesday, the Taiwan High Court in Kaohsiung threw out those convictions, finding all four men not guilty and cancelling the fine for the company.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-29
By: CNA

Taiwan’s coast guard chased off about 100 Chinese fishing boats that were attempting to

Chinese fishing boats in the waters near Kinmen, Sept. 27. (Photo courtesy of Tung)

poach in Taiwan’s territorial waters near Kinmen, in the early hours of Monday.

Acting on radar information, the Kinmen branch of the Coast Guard Administration said, it dispatched three patrol vessels to the area, where a fleet of about 100 Chinese fishing boats had converged, apparently to catch yellow croaker, a small schooling fish that usually fetches a high price at this time of year.

It is common practice for Chinese fishing boats to trespass in Taiwan’s territorial waters near Kinmen around the time of the Mid-Autumn Festival to illegally fish for yellow croaker, according to Kinmen’s coastal patrol officers.

This year, the fishing boats tried to take advantage of the fact that land and sea warnings had been issued for Typhoon Dujuan on Sunday, the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the patrol officers said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/29
By: Lin Meng-ju, Wang Shu-fen and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Sept. 29 (CNA) More than 540,000 households around Taiwan were still without electricity due to Typhoon Dujuan as of Tuesday morning despite efforts by Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower) to restore power, the state-run electric utility said.

Dujuan caused power outages to more than 1.95 million households at one point, Taipower said.

Of the households still without power, 112,634 were in Yilan County, 97,340 were in Taichung, 63,590 were in Miaoli County, 62,827 were in New Taipei and 42,830 were in Yunlin County.

As of 8 a.m., Typhoon Dujuan was centered 90 kilometers east-northeast of Kinmen, moving at a speed of 18 kilometers per hour in a northwesterly direction, the Central Weather Bureau said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/29
By: Liu Shi-yi and Jay Chen

Taipei, Sept. 29 (CNA) Typhoon Dujuan left 2 people dead and 324 others injured when it barreled across Taiwan late Monday and early Tuesday, the Central Emergency Operation Center said.

Six people who had gone hiking in the mountains are unaccounted for.

A 70-year-old man died from head injuries in New Taipei after he was blown over by strong winds, and a worker in Taichung fell to his death in gusty winds at a construction site in Taichung, the center said.

Most of those who were hurt sustained their injuries when they were hit by falling sign boards or in traffic accidents caused by rainy or windy conditions, the center said.

A group of six hikers who went mountain climbing in Hualien on Sept. 25 remain out of contact, the center said. They were scheduled to return on Sept. 30.