Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/16
By: Ko Lin 

Taipei, Nov. 16 (CNA) The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival’s FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Prize was awarded Friday to Chinese director Dong Yue’s debut feature film “The Looming Storm” (暴雪將至).

One of the most prestigious awards for Chinese-language films, the FIPRESCI Prize aims to encourage outstanding Chinese-language filmmaking and new and young filmmakers.

The federation is an international non-governmental organization consisting of professional film critics and journalists. It has members in 60 countries.

At a reception held on the eve of the 55th Golden Horse Awards, members of the jury praised the film for its wonderful visual language and vivid plot, complemented by the cast’s strong performance.    [FULL  STORY]

ELECTION ISSUE:Commissioner candidates said that they would respond to the petition so that voters in the nine-in-one elections could reference their positions

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 17, 2018
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

Environmentalists yesterday called on Taitung county commissioner candidates to

sign a petition against a proposal for a photovoltaic power station to be built on the Jhihben Wetlands (知本溼地).

Initiated by the Society of Wilderness’ Taitung branch and the Wild Bird Society of Taitung, the petition aims to prevent the county government from building what might be the nation’s largest solar power station on a 161-hectare plot of land that overlaps the wetlands in the city’s Jhihben Township (知本).

Covering nearly 20 hectares, the Jhihben Wetlands have up to 185 bird species and is designated by BirdLife International as one of the nation’s important bird and biodiversity areas under its code IBA-TW040, the groups wrote in the petition.

However, Jhihben is not among the nation’s protected wetlands, the Ministry of the Interior’s Web site showed.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International 
Date: 15 November, 2018
By: Paula Chao

Taiwan’ first government-sponsored fashion week is set to open in Taipei in early December. The show is scheduled to be held at the Taiwan Traditional Theater Center from December 6 to 9.

The theme is focused on the uniqueness of every individual.

The culture ministry said the fashion week will be turned into a biannual event, starting 2020. A fashion award will be given in the future to showcase Taiwan’s fashion industry.    [FULL  STORY]

Your daily bulletin of Taiwan news, courtesy of ICRT.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/15
By: International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT)

Minister without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中) said Tuesday that Taiwan will be using this year’s APEC summit as a platform to seek support for its bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

According to Deng, arrangements are being made for members of Taiwan’s delegation to hold bilateral talks with representatives from countries that are currently members of the regional trade bloc.

National Development Council Minister Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) is now in Papua New Guinea for the APEC ministers meeting and says the delegation will try to lobby representatives at every opportunity on the sidelines of the summit.

Negotiators from the 11 signatories to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership agreed in July to start accession talks with potential new members next year, when the free trade pact is scheduled to go into effect.    [FULL  STORY]

 

A music video shot in Taiwan by one of brightest young Maori singers in New Zealand, Kaaterama Pou, premiered on Nov. 13

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/11/15
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—A music video shot in Taiwan by one of the brightest young Maori singers in New Zealand, Kaaterama Pou, premiered on Nov. 13.

Kaaterama is part of a popular Maori pop group, Maimoa Music, which garnered more than 5 million views for their video ‘Wairua.’

‘He Iti’ was shot with Taiwan’s indigenous tribes, where Kaaterama and some of her Maimoa bandmates visited earlier this year. They were invited by the Singapore office of Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau to meet with the country’s indigenous tribes from July 19 to July 26.

It’s theorized that Maori and indigenous Taiwanese have common ancestors.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/15
By Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Nov. 15 (CNA) The government is seeking to establish a multi-module

commission responsible for conducting independent investigations of major accidents involving land, sea and air transport within a two-year timeframe, Young Hong-tsu (楊宏智), chairman of the Aviation Safety Council (ASC), said Thursday.

The Cabinet approved that day an amendment to the Organic Law of the ASC to transform the board tasked with investigating aviation incidents involving civil aircraft, public aircraft, and ultralight vehicles, into one that probes marine, railway, highway and aviation transportation incidents.

The proposed amendment, along with changes to the amendment to the Aviation Occurrence Investigation Act, will be sent to the Legislature for review and is expected to be passed before the end of the current session, Young said.

After the Legislature passes the amendments, personnel and resources for an investigation module for railway accidents will be deployed in one year, for maritime accidents in one-and-a-half years, and for highway accidents in two years, Young said at a press conference following the Cabinet meeting.    [FULL  STORY]

TECHNICALITY: Chiayi politician Kuo Ming-pin refused to cooperate with a vote-buying investigation, saying he is on leave and will not return to work until after the elections

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 16, 2018
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Two servicemen in Kinmen County along with five other people have admitted to

accepting bribe money in exchange for their votes, investigators said in one of several election-related violations reported yesterday.

A man surnamed Lee (李), who was found with bundles of cash, had been in contact with 16 residents to whom he allegedly gave money in exchange for their votes for a candidate in Lieyu Township (烈嶼), Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office head prosecutor Wu Chin-lung (吳錦龍) said.

Lee allegedly offered NT$5,000 per vote, plus travel expenses for residents to return from Taiwan proper on election day, Wu said.

Police in several raids on Wednesday found cash, account books and 18 plane tickets, and served summons for people connected to the case, Wu said.
[FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 14 November, 2018
By: Charlie Storrar

Parantica sita niponica is a Japanese sub-species of the chestnut tiger butterfly
Butterfly experts have been surprised and delighted to find butterflies in the outlying island of county of Penghu that have flown all the way from Japan.

Chestnut tiger butterflies, a Japanese sub-species of Parantica sita, have been discovered in Taiwan’s Penghu islands. They have been marked on the wings by Japanese lepidopterists, proving that they crossed 2,000 kilometers of sea to make their way to Penghu in the Taiwan Strait.

So far some 650 of the butterflies have been found in areas around Penghu, the largest number in 10 years. The chestnut tigers are certainly attractive visitors. But more importantly they give researchers important information about the migration paths of the insects as they seek warmer climes in the winter – and what this could also tell us about climate change.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese startup ramps up production of sugarcane straws as plastic straws are set to be phased out next year

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/11/14
By: Keoni Everington,0 Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As a ban on single-use plastic straws is set to go into effect in July of next year, a Taiwanese startup is ramping up production of its biodegradable straws made from sugarcane and is already shipping its products worldwide.

The name of the new venture is “100 plastic free” (100%植) and the founders have turned down requests from Chinese corporations to buy out the technology and instead are insisting on keeping research and development in Taiwan. The company’s objective is to fight pollution by making straws from plant fibers which can be digested by microorganisms in the ocean, thus greatly expediting their decomposition compared to plastic straws.

Based in the Zhongxing Xincun section of the Central Taiwan Innovation Campus, the company began researching plant fibers as replacements for plastics last year. The inventor and founder, Huang Chien-chung (黃千鐘) , told ETtoday that in addition to developing straws made from sugarcane fibers, the company is also working with a French winery on developing products made from grape waste and wheat chaff.

Huang said that the sugarcane straws his company has developed can replace plastic straws and can fully decompose in the soil within six months. He said, when the group first started modifying plastic straw machinery to produce the sugarcane straws, others doubted them and said, “This can’t possibly be done.” However, after multiple modifications were made on the machinery, they succeeded.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/14
By: Ku Chuan and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Nov. 14 (CNA) The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) will issue

a preliminary report at the end of the week on anti-money laundering practices in Taiwan, having concluded an evaluation on Wednesday, the Cabinet said.

On Nov. 5, a team of nine people from the APG started the two-week peer review process, which included a number of government agencies and private entities in the financial sector, the Cabinet said.

It said Mega Bank, Chunghwa Post Co., and the Agricultural Bank of Taiwan were among the 10 financial institutions evaluated, along with three accounting firms and two law firms.

The APG team also visited the Anti-Money Laundering Division in the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau to learn how it deals with financial intelligence and related data, according to the office.    [FULL  STORY]