DECADE ON: The Taiwan High Court has ordered that NT$35.5 million be paid to 15 people, who received a retrial as their homes were in a ‘potential landslide zone’

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 28, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

The Taiwan High Court’s Kaohsiung branch yesterday ruled that 15 residents of Kaohsiung’s Siaolin Village (小林) are to receive state compensation for damage inflicted on their village in 2009 due to Typhoon Morakot, when heavy rain caused a landslide that buried most of the village and killed more than 400 residents.

The judges overturned the first and second rulings, and ordered the Kaohsiung City Government to pay NT$35.5 million (US$1.15 million) in compensation to the 15 residents, who are each to receive between NT$1.5 million and NT$3 million.

The Supreme Court in a final verdict on June 8, 2017, rejected an appeal for financial compensation from 123 survivors.

In that ruling, the judges ordered a retrial at the Taiwan High Court for 15 residents whose homes were within the “potential landslide zone” as determined by the then-Kaohsiung county government.    [FULL  STORY]

ICRT Radio News
Date: 2019-03-26

American officials remind people that the application fee for the Electronic
System for Travel Authorization, or E-S-T-A, to the United States only costs
14 U.S. dollars.

That’s the equivalent of 420 NT.

The American Institute in Taiwan says that some travel agencies have set up
fake E-S-T-A websites and charge 80 or 90 dollars for the authorization.

A-I-T spokewoman Amanda Mansour says everyone can apply for the authorization
on the official A-I-T website and there’s no need to do so via a third party.

She also stresses that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s E-S-T-A web
address contains g-o-v, meaning it is an official government site.    [SOURCE]

Formosa News
Date: 2019/03/26

This afternoon a massive swarm of purple crow butterflies filled the sky over National Freeway No. 3 in Yunlin’s Linnei Township. The Freeway Bureau sprung into action, closing off the outer northbound lanes from the 252 to 253 kilometer mark.

The crossing was a stunning sight, with an estimated 1,200 purple crow butterflies flying over the freeway each minute. The Taiwan Purple Crow Butterfly Ecological Preservation Association says the swarm was the largest it’s seen since 2008.

At the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, former vice president Lu spoke on her proposal for Taiwan to become a permanently neutral country.

Annette Lu
Former vice president
Historically, Taiwan did not suffer much from local violence, but always became the victim of outside wars. (The troubled history of Taiwan) made us believe that it is when Taiwan becomes a neutral state only that its people can be the masters of their own destiny.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 27, 2019
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Police from the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s Taichung branch hold a news conference yesterday to display facilities for a marijuana plantation allegedly seized at a local residence.
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
Two men have been charged with growing cannabis plants after raids in Taichung and Pingtung.

Taichung prosecutors yesterday questioned the men, surnamed Chen (陳), 30, and Kuo (郭), 32.

They were arrested in terms of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), with Chen being detained and Kuo released with travel restrictions.

A total of 57 cannabis plants, along with 396g of dried cannabis with an estimated street value of NT$10 million (US$324,492), were seized at Chen’s residence in Taichung, the bureau’s 8th Investigation Corps said.    [FULL  STORY]

Formosa News
Date: 2019/03/25

The government says its new cloud-based system is working to reduce prescription errors. Every year, millions of taxpayer dollars are wasted when patients are prescribed drugs by doctors who don’t know they’re already taking the same drug or something similar. In 2017, the government launched an electronic system that checks all new medications against ongoing treatments. The National Health Insurance Administration says that in just a year, the system has already reduced errors by nearly 80 percent.

Tai Hsueh-yung
Health insurance official
What we see now is that antihypertensive drugs are No. 1. In second place are hypno-sedative drugs.

Government data show that duplicate medication orders are a serious problem that cost the healthcare system NT$376 million in 2017.

To tackle therapeutic duplication, the NHIA integrated prescription histories with hospital medical records on the cloud. Automatic alerts on the electronic system give doctors a clear picture of what drugs the patient is taking. One year after the system rolled out, duplicate orders fell from 570,000 in 2017 to 120,000 in 2018.    [FULL  STORY]