Hoping to reverse the extinction of Taiwan’s Aboriginal languages, a diverse group of volunteers have come together to create the first Amis language mobile dictionary app

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 28, 2015
By: Aaron Wytze Wilson  /  Contributing reporter

A lack of online resources can make learning Taiwan’s Aboriginal languages incredibly

difficult. But a new app called Moedict Amis dictionary (阿美語萌典—方敏英字典) has made learning the Amis language as easy as cecay, tosa, tolo (one, two, three).

A group of volunteers have come together to create the first ever Amis language dictionary app for mobile phones. The group includes both Amis and non-Amis, engineers and tech luddites — and even a former legislator and a Catholic priest.

The app’s development is not targeted at language enthusiasts but for the Amis to save their language from years of regressive government policies, and urban migration that has crippled the development of Aboriginal languages.     [FULL  STORY]

SHOCK MOVE?Mayor Ko said that he was surprised to learn that the homeowner did not know in advance of the demolition, and that he had not been told either

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 27, 2015
By: Sean Lin  /  Staff reporter

The Taipei Department of Urban Development yesterday said that a construction

company’s demolition of a privately owned building was carried out in accordance with legal procedures as part of a private urban renewal project approved by the Taipei City Government.

Pacific Construction Co on Friday sent three excavators to a site on Tingzhou Road (汀州路), and in just two minutes tore down a house owned by Luo Chin-kuang (羅進光).

The urban renewal project involved 80 landowners, and Luo was the only one to oppose to it.

All the other homes had already been demolished.

Luo had previously said that his house’s location had been determined according to feng shui principles, and that demolishing it would bring Taiwan bad luck.

Luo emerged from his home at noon and, kneeling down, he read from a prepared statement, pleading to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to help protect his land.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-26
By: CNA

US president Barack Obama reiterated Friday his “strong commitment” to Washington’s

One-China policy based on the three joint communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act during his meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping at the White House.

At a joint news conference held in the White House Rose Garden after the meeting, Obama said his talks with Xi covered six main issues: the bilateral economic relationship, climate commitment, security in the Asia Pacific, international security, human rights and expanding the connections between the peoples of the two countries.

Obama mentioned the Taiwan Relations Act while discussing security in the Asia Pacific.

“I reiterated my strong commitment, as well, to our One-China policy based on the Three Joint Communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act,” Obama told reporters at the news conference, with Xi standing beside him.

Obama said he and Xi had candid discussions on the East and South China Seas and he reiterated the right of all countries to freedom of navigation and overflight and to unimpeded commerce.     [FULL  STORY]

ILLEGAL ENTRY:Activists said the authorities should have conducted a full probe to ascertain if the five were dissidents and the risks of sending them back to China

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 26, 2015
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

A Chinese woman, Yang Luo Yini (楊羅旖旎), was deported by immigration authorities

yesterday, while prosecutors in Taoyuan charged four of her Chinese associates with illegal entry after they landed on the shore of northern Taiwan in a motorboat earlier this month.

Wang Rui (王睿), Su Qianlong (蘇黔龍), Lu Ning (陸寧) and Shi Jian (石堅) were charged with violating the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法) and acting as accomplices to criminal activities.

Su, Lu and Shi took a motorboat from China’s Fujian Province across the Taiwan Strait, and landed on a rocky beach in Taoyuan’s Dayuan District (大園) on Sept. 10, allegedly to pick up Wang and his girlfriend, Yang Luo, who had overstayed their visas and were residing at an apartment in Taipei.

However, questions remained about their motives, with the authorities saying the five Chinese nationals were suspected of spying, while Taiwanese human rights groups said they are Chinese dissidents fleeing persecution and urged the government not to deport them, and instead grant them political asylum.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/26
By: Elaine Hou

Taipei, Sept. 26 (CNA) The two pilots on an AT-3 Air Force Academy training aircraft that lost contact with air traffic controllers Tuesday have been found dead in the cabin of the aircraft that went down in the mountainous areas of central Taiwan, the Ministry of National Defense confirmed Saturday.

Army Special Forces soldiers found the bodies of the pilots at about 12:50 p.m. Saturday after military personnel on an Army CH-47 helicopter spotted debris from the crash, the defense ministry said.

According to the Air Force, the aircraft, which had been in service for about 27 years, took off from an air force base in the southern city of Kaohsiung at around 11:55 a.m. Tuesday and lost contact with air traffic controllers 30 minutes later.

Maj. Wang Ching-chun (王勁鈞), 32, was in the front seat of the plane, and 1st. Lt. Huang Chun-jung (黃俊榮), 23, was in the back seat during the routine training flight, according to the Air Force.     [FULL  STOR]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/25
By: Wang Cheng-chung and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Sept. 25 (CNA) If Republic of China nationals enter the United States using

passports that have the official name of the ROC covered, their passports could be confiscated by U.S. Customs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned Friday.

Kung Chung-cheng (龔中誠), director-general of the ministry’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, said the bureau has asked the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) — which represents U.S. interests in Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties — about the matter.

The AIT replied that if foreign nationals enter the U.S. using passports that have the official name obscured with stickers with the aim of changing the features of the passport, U.S. Customs reserves the right to confiscate the passport or deny entry.

Kung’s remarks came after Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴), a long-term Taiwan independence activist and chairman of the Liberal Taiwan Party (自由台灣黨), mobilized nearly 30 people to attempt to storm the bureau office in downtown Taipei to “turn themselves in,” but were deterred by police.     [FULL  STORY]

South China Morning Post
Date: Friday, 25 September, 2015
By: Alice Woodhouse

Taiwan will host its first cyber security hackathon on-site in partnership with the Ministry of

Economic Affairs starting next month, as the island seeks to shield itself against rising online attacks.

Over 1,000 hackers are expected to take part in online qualification for the HITCON Capture the Flag (CTF) contest to be held in Taiwan. The final will take place in early December and offer a top prize of US$10,000.

A combination of geopolitics and a wealth of technology firms in Taiwan make the island a major target for malicious cyber attacks.

In late 2014, Taiwan’s premier blamed China for attacks against civil and government websites.

The allegations followed media reports a year earlier that Chinese hackers were using the island, which China views as a renegade province after it split from the mainland when the Communists took over in 1949, as a testing ground before attacking the United States.     [FULL  STORY]