Front Page

New Hampshire Man Recalls Taiwan Fire: It Was Instantaneous

ABC News
Date: Sep 22, 2015
By: kathy mccormack, associated press

A New Hampshire man recovering at home from serious burns suffered in a water park explosion in Taiwan says support from his family and friends have kept him going as he thinks about that June day the flammable powder blew up over a stage.

“It was so instantaneous,” Alex Haas said Tuesday. “It was just like flipping a light switch. You could see outlines of people in the fire, but it was, ‘Run as fast you can. Get out.’ That’s what I did.”

Haas, 27, said a group called Color Play Asia had rented out part of the park for a party on June 27 and he was standing in an empty swimming pool near the stage at the time the powder was released. [FULL STORY]

New Hampshire Man Recalls Taiwan Fire: It Was Instantaneous

ABC News
Date: Sep 22, 2015
By: kathy mccormack, associated press

Haas, 27, said a group called Color Play Asia had rented out part of the park for a party on June 27 and he was standing in an empty swimming pool near the stage at the time the powder was released.

“It’s just filled with all the dust,” he said in a phone interview from his home in Mont Vernon. “Every time you take a step, you pick dust up and it gets on fire. So it just kept burning and burning.”

Media in Taiwan have reported that 11 people died and more than 500 were injured.

Haas, who had been teaching in Taipei, suffered burns on about 90 percent of his body. He managed to get to a hospital fairly quickly. “I had a little trouble with the (tracheotomy) tube going in, but they got it in, they kept me alive, they did a damn fine job doing that.” [FULL STORY]

Tsai unveils Go South policy

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-09-22
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen

Tsai unveils Go South policy. Central News Agency (2015-09-22 15:15:59)

on Tuesday announced a Go South policy favoring ties with India and Southeast Asia.

During the rule of President Lee Teng-hui in the 1990s, Taiwan already emphasized trade links with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and to a lesser extent, India. Tsai’s new policy is seen as an attempt to wean Taiwan’s economy away from the excessive reliance on China built up during the government of President Ma Ying-jeou.

As Taiwan hopes to diversify its trade, the natural choice is to strengthen relations overall with ASEAN and India, Tsai said, promising the formation of a special government taskforce to push the new policy.

She unveiled the proposals during an address to foreign diplomats and representatives in Taiwan on the occasion of the DPP’s 29th anniversary. Tsai, who chairs the opposition party, is widely expected to win the January 16 presidential election. [FULL STORY]

Ghost Push Android malware infects 1.3m phones per day

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/22
By: Esme Jiang and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Sept. 22 (CNA) Cheetah Mobile, a well-known developer of Android apps and utilities, recently released a warning that it has discovered a new malware dubbed “Ghost Push,” which infects an estimated 1.3 million Android-based mobile phones globally per day, including many in Taiwan.

The malware is being distributed through non-Google app stores and has managed to infect 14,846 types of phones and 3,658 brands, according to Cheetah Mobile’s security research lab.

The most affected users have been identified as residing in countries like the United States, India, China and Mexico, it said.

It was reported that some users in Taiwan have also been affected by the malware. [FULL STORY]

Slowdown in Tainan’s dengue cases must be monitored: CDC

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-22
By: CNA

Taiwan’s southern city of Tainan has seen the first slowdown in the number of newly

A soldier sprays disinfectant in a village in Tainan, Sept. 21. (File photo/Huang Chung-yu)

reported daily cases of dengue fever after the epidemic surged for 14 consecutive weeks, but whether this indicates a steady decline will need to be watched over the next three weeks, the Central Epidemics Command Center said on Monday.

As of Sunday, Tainan has recorded a total of 11,462 cases of dengue fever, around 87% of the country’s total.

Chuang Jen-hsiang, deputy director-general of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), said the number of dengue fever cases in Tainan has increased for 14 weeks in a row since the 22nd week, or late May this year.

But a first turnaround appeared last week when the number of cases was 2,920 (Sept. 13-19), lower than the 3,128 cases in the 36th week. [FULL STORY]

Cancel cross-strait talks on travel document: legislator

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 23, 2015
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker’s suggestion to call off a top-level cross-strait

Premier Mao Chi-kuo, right, is joined by Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia as he answers questions on China’s new card-style “compatriot travel document” in the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday. Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

meeting scheduled for next month to demonstrate Taiwan’s unhappiness with China’s high-handed introduction of a new travel pass for Taiwanese would be considered, Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said yesterday, although he stressed that China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) has responded positively to Taipei’s complaints.

KMT Legislator Lu Hsiu-yen (盧秀燕) said China’s unilateral move to replace its paper “Taiwan compatriot travel document” (台胞證) with a smart-card pass was a slap in the face to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), the premier and Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言).

If Taiwan’s government simply delivered an oral protest, it “would be looked down on by both its people and the Chinese government,” Lu said, as she told Cabinet ministers the meeting scheduled for next month between Hsia and TAO Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) should be scrapped. [FULL STORY]

MND bans military servicemen from buying own equipment

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/09/21
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Sept. 21 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense (MND) defended on Monday the

(From Hsu Cheng-yi’s Facebook page)

way it equips military personnel after being accused of not caring about providing gear that performs up to expectations.

The ministry said the equipment it provides is based on actual needs and follows set procurement procedures, and military officers and servicemen are required to wear uniformed outfits for combat identification and to maintain military discipline.

Military officers and servicemen are also prohibited from buying their own equipment, it said.

The MND was responding to media reports that Hsu Cheng-yi (許誠宜), a squadron head of the Marine amphibious reconnaissance and patrol unit, bought his own gear, including an anti-bullet helmet and vest, for a recent military exercise. [FULL STORY]

Beijing signals a willingness to bypass Taiwan’s government

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-21
By: Tang Shao-cheng

A consensus on cross-strait issues between the leaders of China and the United States is

The PRC flag is raised at the military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing, Sept. 3. The PRC was founded in 1949, four years after the end of the war. (Photo/Xinhua)

far from certain during Xi Jinping’s state visit to the US from Sept. 22, but recent moves by Beijing have signaled possible changes to the development of ties across the Taiwan Strait.

A public security unit in Guangdong province recently sent a document directly to the Yencheng police precinct in Taiwan’s southern municipality of Kaohsiung, instructing the latter to offer support on certain cases. A Chinese travel authority also made a direct request to Taiwanese travel agencies to tell them to stop showing videos or chat shows on tour buses that touch on ideology, religious activities or anti-communist propaganda. Beijing also announced its decision to scrap Taiwan Compatriot permits and the issuing of travel ID cards to Taiwanese residents without conducting any prior negotiations with Taipei. More recently, Beijing declined to make concessions at the fifth meeting between banking supervisory commissions of both sides and during the negotiations on the fifth freedom right for Taiwan as a transit stop for mainland travelers.

The above actions indicate that Beijing will no longer use the Straits Exchange Foundation and its mainland counterpart organization, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, as a negotiating platform for certain affairs and will instead allow individual units under the central government to reach out directly. This suggests that Beijing no longer attaches great importance to Taiwan’s elected government.

Taiwan dengue outbreak tops 13,000; Military to be mobilized to help

Outbreak News
Date: September 21, 2015
By: Robert Herriman
Robert Herriman is a microbiologist and the Editor-in-Chief ofOutbreak News Today and the Executive Editor of The Global Dispatch Follow @bactiman63

The dengue fever outbreak in Taiwan has grown by an additional 443 indigenous cases on Sunday, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), bringing the total tally to 13,209.

The second meeting of the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) for Dengue Outbreak occurred Friday and a multi-faceted approach in order to effectively bring the outbreak under control was discussed that would include mobilizing the military to support local governments in upscaling the implementation of the nationwide clean-up campaign of vector breeding sites.

In addition, CECC for Dengue Outbreak also announced the formation of “Vector Control Advisory Panel” consisting of 150 Pest Control Operators (PCO’s) certified by the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC).

10 to 20 members would make up one unit and each unit would work for 1 to 2 weeks to coach district and village chiefs the proper ways to clean and remove vector breeding sites in Tainan City.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) would continue to reinforce health education about dengue in schools.

The majority of this year’s dengue cases have been confirmed in Tainan City (11,462) and Kaohsiung City (1,527).

To date, a cumulative total of 25 deaths were found to be linked with dengue infection. 38 deaths, including 34 from Tainan City, and 2 each from Kaohsiung City and Pingtung County, are still waiting to be reviewed.

Robert Herriman is a microbiologist and the Editor-in-Chief ofOutbreak News Today and the Executive Editor of The Global Dispatch

Follow @bactiman63

Truck crushes cars in horror Taiwan highway crash (video)

9News
Date: September 21, 2015

Five people are lucky to be alive after a container truck overturned on a busy highway in Taiwan, crushing two cars and causing traffic chaos.

The smash occurred on State Highway 1 in Changhua on Taiwan’s west coast yesterday, CNA reports.

It is unclear exactly how the high speed crash occurred but dashcam footage appears to show a silver vehicle cut in front of the truck, causing the rig to slam into it.

The truck then pushes the car across three lanes and into the concrete barrier dividing the highway, collecting a second vehicle.

The impact combined with the sharp swerve causes the truck to tip over and crush the cars underneath it. [FULL STORY]

Page 960 of 1067

« 1 … 958 959 960 961 962 … 1,067 »