Page Three

Former executive wins lawsuit against Hon Hai

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 20, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co has lost a lawsuit over chairman Terry Gou’s (郭台銘) firing of a top executive for missing a meeting, with the Supreme Court yesterday ordering the company to compensate the executive about NT$17.95 million (US$581,999) in severance pay and stock options.

The court in its final verdict upheld a decision by the High Court in favor of Gary Hsieh (謝冠宏), former general manager for Hon Hai’s Innovation Green Digital Business Group (IGDBG).

Hsieh now serves as chairman of audio electronics producer 1More Technology Co.

Hsieh sued Hon Hai after Guo fired him in 2012, saying that he did not receive severance pay or compensation.    [FULL  STORY]

Premier: Situation Under Control, Everyone Can Relax

ICRT Radio News
Date: 2019-04-18

The premier is encouraging the public to rest easy after the earthquake,
saying the situation is under control.

Su Tseng-chang says as soon as the 6.1 magnitude quake struck Hualien at 1pm,
he ordered the opening of the Central Emergency Operation Center and went to
the center himself to keep watch.

Premier Su says reports of the situation in Taipei and Hualien have all come
in now, and he is feeling much relieved.

The only reported serious injuries were of two tourists in Hualien’s Taroko
Gorge who were hit by falling rocks, both Malaysian nationals, and Su says
they have already been sent to the hospital for care.    [FULL  STORY]

President Tsai visits police, airmen, and Googlers

Formosa News
Date: 2019/04/18

Google’s Taipei headquarters recently hosted President Tsai Ing-wen, who is on a string of highly public visits. The president was surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd as she toured the office, wrote autographs, and posed for selfies. She also picked up what she jokingly referred to as her “first award in a long time.”

She’s warmly welcomed by Google employees, who line up for selfies and autographs. Then she’s presented with a Silver Button in recognition of her YouTube channel reaching 100,000 subscribers.

This office visit was documented by the presidential camera crew. The footage appears in the fifth episode of Tsai’s web series “Where is Ing Going?” to promote the “Intelligent Taiwan” project.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Health Minister suffers minor injury during magnitude 6.1 earthquake

Taiwan’s Health Minister suffers minor injury after damage inflicted on Ministry of Health by magnitude 6.1 earthquake

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/18
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Chen Shih-chung. (MOHW photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — After a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan’s Hualien County at 1:01 p.m. today, Taiwan’s Health Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) suffered a minor injury when damaged was inflicted on the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) offices by the quake, while one other person in the ministry also suffered a mild injury.

The MOHW today announced that the temblor caused ceiling tiles, air vents, and chunks of steel framing to fall on a few of the floors of the ministry’s headquarters in Taipei’s Nangang District. As the quake delivered intensity level 4 shock waves to Taipei, Chen braced a steel doorway, and his hand was “pinched” when the steel frame of a doorway came loose.

However, the injury was reportedly minor, according to Up Media. Another employee suffered a minor injury as well, reported ETtoday.

After the quake ended, Chen then quickly rushed to the 8th floor, where much of the ceiling tiles and steel framing had collapsed from the ceiling. Public Relations Director (王哲超) Wang Che-chao told Up Media that the most extensive damage occurred on the 12th floor, the building’s top floor.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s press freedom falls from best in Asia, behind South Korea

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/18
By: Chi Jo-yao 

Taipei, April 18 (CNA) Taiwan’s global press freedom ranking remained the same at 42nd, falling from the best in Asia last year to second, behind South Korea, according to the 2019 World Press Freedom Index released Tuesday and updated Thursday by the Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RSF).

Among the 180 countries and territories evaluated by RSF, Taiwan’s ranking is better than that of Japan, which remained at 67th, Hong Kong, which fell three places to 73rd, and the Philippines, which fell one place to 134th.

South Korea jumped 20 places to 43rd in 2018 and went up two places further in 2019. RSF attributed the improvement to the election of the country’s President Moon Jae-in, who it said has brought “a breath of fresh air after a bad decade in which South Korea fell more than 30 places in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index.”

The Moon administration ended a decade-old conflict at two public broadcasters — the Korean Broadcasting System and Munhwa Broadcasting Corp. –where “journalists objected to have bosses foisted on them by the government,” RSF said.
[FULL  STORY]

EVA passenger in toilet incident dies in Thailand

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 19, 2019
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

A passenger who had demanded that EVA Air flight attendants remove his pants and wipe his behind while using the toilet passed away last month, the airline said on Wednesday.

The incident was exposed at a news conference on Jan. 21, when one of the flight attendants tearfully described what had happened on the flight from Los Angeles to Taipei on Jan. 19.

The passenger had demanded that flight attendants assist him because his right hand had been injured, she said.

After the news conference, netizens discovered that the man had been scheduled to fly with EVA again next month.   [FULL  STORY]

French priest opens center for mentally and physically challenged

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 17 April, 2019
By: Paula Chao

After more than half a century of dedication to Taiwan, French priest Yves Moal is still at

French priest Yves Moal

it. The Catholic priest has been working hard to open a center for the physically and mentally challenged. The project has finally borne fruit, opening just weeks ago.

French priest Yves Moal was just 25 when he came to Taiwan. He has spent decades of his life preaching and helping the needy in eastern Taiwan’s Hualien County. He is now 78.

In 1999, Father Moal took over a care center for the physically and mentally challenged. Over time, the residents aged, and Father Moal came to see the need for a new kind of facility- one built specifically with the needs of those over age 45 in mind.

Thanks to his fund-raising efforts, the new center was completed in early April.
[FULL  STORY]

Firefighters rescue 13 people from residential building fire in New Taipei City

Taiwan English News
Date: April 18, 2019 
By: Phillip Charlier

Firefighters carried babies and elderly people out of a building after a fire in Banqiao District affected 17 households this morning, April 17.

A total of 34 people were evacuated from the six-storey building, of whom 13 required rescue after being trapped.

One family was trapped for 20 minutes until firefighters finally reached them, and helped carry 2 infants out of the apartment.

Ten of the residents were sent to hospital for precautionary check-ups and treatment for light injuries.

Firefighters responded to reports at 7:11am, and the fire was extinguished within 22 minutes, according to a fire chief quoted in an ET Today report.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan lychee harvest halved due to mild and dry winter

Poor harvest not seen in five decades

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/04/17
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Lychee harvest likely to be cut by more than half amid climate change. (By Central News Agency)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan will produce less than half the normal amount of lychees for the first time in almost 50 years because the past winter was not cold and wet enough, reports said Wednesday (April 17).

The Council of Agriculture (COA) said that only 20 percent of lychee and longan trees had blossomed, leading experts to expect that production of the fruits would be at least below half, almost five decades after this last happened, the Central News Agency reported.    [FULL  STORY]

Fraud ring busted in cross-border operation: CIB

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/04/17
By: Liu Chien-pang and Emerson Lim

Chang Chao-hsiung (張詔雄), an officer of the CIB’s International Criminal Affairs Division / CNA file photo

Taipei, April 17 (CNA) An international telecom fraud ring was busted in a cross-border operation that resulted in the arrest of more than 60 suspects, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) announced Wednesday.

The ring was busted through cooperation among police in Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, Chang Chao-hsiung (張詔雄), an officer of the CIB’s International Criminal Affairs Division, said in a press conference.

According to Chang, the CIB, in collaboration with the Royal Thai Police, the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Bureau of Immigration, raided a telecom fraud operation in Metro Manila in June last year and apprehended three Taiwanese and 16 Thais.  [FULL  STORY]