Anti-money laundering rating will help Taiwan's international position

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/06/29
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Following three rounds of assessment for its efforts against money

laundering, Taiwan has ended in the best possible category, the Cabinet’s Anti-Money Laundering Office said.

The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering upgraded the island country from its “enhanced follow-up” list to its top “regular follow-up” list after a peer review, the Central News Agency reported.

The outcome was important because it showed Taiwan complied with international standards in the fight against criminal and terrorist money laundering, thus giving it a better position to engage in international finance, and even improving its chances of joining international organizations.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/06/30
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, June 29 (CNA) Taiwanese pop diva Jolin Tsai's (蔡依林) album "Ugly Beauty" emerged as the biggest winner at Taiwan's Golden Melody Awards Saturday, bagging two awards — Album of the Year and Song of the Year.

"Ugly Beauty," which entered the competition with a leading seven nominations, was unique in its style, said Sandee Chan (陳珊妮), who headed the jury.

"By making this album, I discovered my most authentic self," Tsai said as she received the Album of the Year award.

"Taiwanese society has undergone different kinds of sorrow over the past year, but Tsai's album healed the public in a delightful manner," Chan said at a post-ceremony press conference, adding that it took the jury two rounds of voting to declare "Ugly Beauty" Album of the Year.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 30, 2019
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday strongly condemned a newspaper for publishing a

letter advising people to ingest a small amount of the highly toxic herbicide paraquat to prevent mosquito bites and reduce the risk of death from dengue fever.

The CDC said it has asked for the letter to be removed from the newspaper’s Web site and that it would report the situation to the police, as it might constitute a breach of Article 63 of the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), which stipulates punishments for spreading rumors that might undermine public peace and order.

The Chinese-language newspaper last week published the letter sent by a person surnamed Chen (陳), who claimed to be a student at National Taiwan University’s Institute of Biotechnology.

Chen wrote that Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) should use paraquat to fight dengue fever.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: June 28, 2019

Yunlin boasts a rich and complex past. The western Taiwan county’s fertile soil has attracted settlers for millennia, with the earliest known residents being the Hoanya people. Nearly four centuries ago, some of the first Han immigrants to Taiwan settled in the area, and the Dutch East India Company based an outpost on Yunlin’s coast during its colonial rule (1624-1662) over parts of the island.

This varied history remains underappreciated both inside and outside Taiwan, but local group the Luoyoung Cultural and Educational Foundation is looking to change that.

In the late 1990s, a group of cultural preservation enthusiasts in Yunlin’s Xiluo Township launched a campaign to save a bridge over the Zhuoshui River. The 1,939-meter structure, connecting Xiluo with Xizhou Township to the north in central Taiwan’s Changhua County, was among the longest in the world at the time of its completion in 1952. Activists and residents were united in their opposition to government plans to demolish the landmark, and ultimately proved successful in protecting this prominent piece of local history.

The LCEF is the group primarily responsible for saving the structure. Founded by township native Louise Ho, it organized the Xiluo Bridge Cultural Tourism Festival in 2001 to celebrate the triumphant conservation campaign. The event featured sculptures by some of Taiwan’s most celebrated artists, such as Ju Ming and Yang Yu-yu, and attracted more than 200,000 visitors.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/06/28
By:  Central News Agency

Taipei (CNA) – More than 20 Taiwanese and Hong Kong singers, composers and other music

professionals have produced a song in support of Hong Kong's anti-extradition bill movement, which will take to the streets again on July 1 to demand the bill's withdrawal.

The song, released Friday, is titled "cheng" (撐) in Mandarin, which roughly translated means "support" or "having one's back."

The Mandarin character is part of a slogan — Taiwan cheng Hong Kong (台灣撐香港) — that was chanted by demonstrators who rallied in Taiwan earlier this month to support the Hong Kong protests.

"The idea of producing the song came into being after a bunch of us talked about (the anti-extradition bill movement) two weeks ago," award-winning Taiwanese music producer Blaire Ko (柯智豪), who oversaw the song's production, told CNA on Friday.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/06/28
By: Wu Hsin-yun, Wang Shu-fen and Ko Lin

Taipei, June 28 (CNA) EVA Airways Corp. said Friday that its flights to Hong Kong and Los Angeles will resume next week as more flight attendants are choosing to return to work amid an ongoing strike staged by the Taoyuan Flight Attendants Union (TFAU).

The company did not provide a figure on how many flight attendants have returned to work since the strike was launched last week.

According to EVA Air, 329 flights will be canceled from July 6-10, affecting an estimated 53,900 passengers.

As the strike entered its ninth day, TFAU said Friday that union leaders met with EVA Chairman Steve Lin (林寶水) earlier in the day.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 27 June, 2019
By: Paula Chao

The foreign ministry says it hopes to work with the private sector to expand its foreign aid program.

That was the word from Foreign Ministry official Phoebe Yeh on Thursday.

Yeh said foreign aid made up just 0.051% of Taiwan’s gross national income last year, far lower than Japan’s 0.28% and South Korea’s 0.15%. Yeh also said the standard of Official Development Assistance for member countries of the Organization for Economic and Cooperation Development stands at 0.7%.
[FULL  STORY]