Taipei Times
Date: Feb 24, 2019
By: Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan Women’s Link and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) yesterday urged

the Ministry of Health and Welfare to inform people about the health risk of breast implants.

The US Food and Drug Administration in 2011 identified a possible link between breast implants and the development of anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), Women’s Link founder and standing director Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) said.

The breast implant-associated ALCL (BIA-ALCL) is not breast cancer, but a cancer of the immune system, she said, adding that it is mostly found in scar tissue and fluid near implants.

As of September last year, the US agency had received 457 unique medical device reports that meet the pathologic criteria of BIA-ALCL, including nine resulting in death, and most data suggest that BIA-ALCL occurs more frequently after placement of breast implants with textured surfaces than those with smooth surfaces, Huang said.
[FULL  STORY]

Police are looking for a man and a woman

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/23
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Police were looking for a man and a woman Saturday suspected of having

daubed the statue of a prominent Taiwan Independence leader in Tainan with red paint.

The incident followed the sawing off of a leg from President Chiang Kai-shek’s equestrian statue on the campus of National Chengchi University in Taipei Friday, seen as retaliation against vandalism directed against the 228 Peace Memorial.

On Saturday morning, passersby in the Tainan City district of Qigu noticed that a statue of the late independence activist Yuzin Chaotong Ng (黃昭堂) showed traces of red paint on its face and on an engraved text below.

Police cordoned off the area and reviewed surveillance camera footage, which revealed that a man had been throwing the paint and a woman had been taking pictures and film of the act around 10 p.m. on Friday, the Central News Agency reported.   [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 22 February, 2019
By: Paula Chao

Could Taichung be Taiwan’s best place to play the lottery?
Could the God of Fortune live in the central city of Taichung? When it comes to winning the lottery, the city’s residents are awfully lucky.

Over the past five years, more top prize-winning lottery tickets have been sold in the city of Taichung than anywhere else in Taiwan. The value of these prizes has ranged from US$100 million to US$26 million.

Local shops that have sold winning tickets hype up their track records to attract more customers, setting off firecrackers after a win and advertising past wins on their walls.    [FULL  STORY]

Kao Chun-ming, a former political prisoner, died at the age of 89 last week

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/22
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Late former Presbyterian Church in Taiwan leader and human rights activist Kao Chun-ming (高俊明) was at the forefront of the country’s democratic movement, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said Friday.

A memorial service for Kao, who passed away last week at the age of 89, took place in Kaohsiung Friday. The reverend played a key role in helping dissidents and human rights activists during the Kuomintang’s Martial Law rule and even spent four years in prison.

Writing on Facebook, the president said Kao had been a predecessor and an elder of the Taiwanese democracy movement, and that all the suggestions he had made, amounted to an expression of his love for the country. Today’s democracy had been achieved by the lifelong blood and tears of people like Kao, she wrote.

After the opposition Democratic Progressive Party won a presidential election for the first time in 2000, the Presbyterian leader was appointed senior adviser to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who was present at Friday’s service.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/22
By: Fang Cheng-hsiang and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Feb. 22 (CNA) The satellite imagery on Google Maps that raised public concerns because they exposed the locations of Taiwan’s important military deployments have been removed from the web mapping service’s platform, Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) said Friday.

After his ministry talked with Google staff, the company removed the 3-dimensional images earlier in the day, said Yen during an interpellation session in the Legislative Yuan after he was questioned by Kuomintang lawmaker Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) about the worrisome satellite images.

Lai said the online mapping service has given away the nation’s military secrets.

“All important bases of our national defense have been exposed,” said Lai.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 21 February, 2019
By: Paula Chao

Taiwan’s young city-dwellers don’t really have the space or the opportunity to garden. One junior high school in Taipei is working to change this by incorporating a rooftop garden into its biology classes. The goal is to give teenagers some hands-on gardening experience while teaching them the importance of not wasting food.

Eighth-graders at Jieshou Junior High School are excited to roll up their sleeves and find out whether they have a green thumb. This semester, they will grow all kinds of vegetables such as butter lettuce, basil, garlic sprouts, eggplants and hot peppers in the school’s rooftop garden.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/19
By: William Stanton

It is not surprising that many, perhaps most, people around the world do not know about Taiwan. After all, China — with the support of more and more countries — has isolated Taiwan diplomatically for more than forty years, and recently China has been campaigning to eliminate even the name of Taiwan as a global destination. Following the demise of Mao Zedong, China increasingly prospered and attracted business people, tourists, and students from around the world, who too often have bypassed Taiwan. Once, for example, almost everyone wishing to learn Mandarin came to Taiwan, but most now go to China.

What is more surprising, however, is that many Taiwanese themselves do not sufficiently appreciate their own country. Taiwanese often ask me with a puzzled look, why I live in Taiwan. Over time, I have come to believe this reflects both a native modesty, but also perhaps a misperception of Taiwan’s place in the world, a lack of knowledge of the extraordinary accomplishments of their own country, and to some extent therefore a lack of confidence in Taiwan. Such attitudes need to change.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/21
By: Wang Cheng-chung and William Yen 

Taipei, Feb. 21 (CNA) Over 60 civic groups will march in Taipei on Sunday to mark the 72nd anniversary of the 228 Incident, the brutal crackdown of an anti-government uprising in 1947, according to the organizers Wednesday.

The civic groups, including the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and Nylon Cheng Liberty Foundation (NCLF), called for the public to join them that day in reflecting on the impact the incident has had on Taiwan’s society as they walk from Tianma Tea House in Taipei’s Datong District to the Executive Yuan, the organizers said.

The route goes past sites connected to the 228 Incident, including Tianma Tea House, the former Monopoly Bureau’s Taipei branch building (which now houses Chang Hwa Bank’s Taipei branch), and the former Taipei Broadcasting Station (now Taipei 228 Memorial Museum), before arriving at the Office of the Chief Executive of Taiwan Province (now the Executive Yuan building) in Zhongzheng District, the organizers pointed out.    [FULL  STORY]