Cross carrier has taken his 12-foot wooden cross to over 200 countries over the course of 32 years 

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/11/08
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An American man, who has carried his 12-foot wooden cross

across the world many times over the course of 32 years, added Taiwan to the over 200 countries he had journeyed to, having just completed a two-week trek of the country on Nov.4.

The man, Keith Wheeler, who currently lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has carried the 90-pound cross over 24,000 miles over the course of three decades. His travels have taken him from places as far flung as Tibet, Samoa, Iran, and even Antarctica.

In 1985, Wheeler says that God spoke to him and told him to carry the cross to through the streets of Tulsa. He then felt God tell him to “take the cross and identify that message of love along the roadsides of this world.”     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/08
By: Wu Hsin-yun and S.C. Chang

Taipei, Nov. 8 (CNA) Taiwan’s government on Wednesday set a target of reducing the

country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2020 to a level 2 percent lower than in 2005.

It set the 2020 target at 260.717 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2eq), which is 2 percent lower than the 2005 level.

In June 2015, to demonstrate its determination to reduce carbon emissions, Taiwan passed the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act, setting a target of cutting carbon emissions by 2030 to a level equal to 80 percent of the nation’s total carbon emissions in 2005, a base year for the long term effort. Under that model, by 2050, Taiwan’s total greenhouse gas emissions will be just half of the 2005 total.

Thomas S.K. Chan (詹順貴), deputy minister of environmental protection, told CNA Wednesday that the target for 2020 has slowed partly because three nuclear reactors at the country’s first and second nuclear power plants are not in operation.
[FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 8, 2017
By: Wang Shwu-feng and Evelyn Kao

TAIPEI (CNA) – Ridership on the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit (KMRT) system’s light

rail line dropped by half to about 3,500 riders a day in the first week after the line started charging fares on Nov. 1.

Travel on the light rail line, the first of its kind in Taiwan, had been free since it opened in October 2015.

But with a sharp increase in the number of passengers following the extension of the line this year, the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit Bureau decided to charge fares starting Nov. 1.

In the six months prior to Nov. 1, ridership on the light rail line averaged 7,000 passengers per day on weekdays and nearly 20,000 on weekends and holidays, said Shih Yao-cheng (石耀誠), the head of the Department of Public Affairs of Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp. (KRTC), which has been commissioned by the bureau to operate the line.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-11-07

The Taiwan Hospital Association and the International Hospital Federation (IHF) jointly

hosted the 41st World Hospital Congress on Tuesday. The IHF is the largest non-profit organization under the World Health Organization (WHO). It is the first time that Taiwan is hosting an event of such scale under the WHO, even though Taiwan is not a member.

Vice President Chen Chien-jen said at the congress that more than 850 experts from 48 countries are attending. He said it is a milestone for Taiwanese hospitals to have exchanges with other hospitals in the international arena.

Chen noted that the theme for this year’s congress is “Patient-friendly & Smarter Healthcare.” He is said this is the very direction that Taiwan is taking. He said that he hopes all Taiwan’s hospitals will become smart hospitals providing local and overseas patients with better care.    [FULL  STORY]

Construction of the Tainan Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system will begin in 2019 

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/11/07
By:  Taiwan News

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A new Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system will be set up in

southern Taiwan, Tainan City and the construction of the MRT’s lines will kick off in 2019, as reported by CNA.

In a press conference on Nov.6, the chief of Tainan City Government’s Department of Transportation, Lin Yan-cheng (林炎成) told CNA that the planning for two lines for the Tainan City MRT system has been wrapped up, and is pending approval from the Ministry of Transportation.

According to the plan, the Tainan MRT will have 12 routes with a total length of 200 km, connecting downtown with the Southern Taiwan Science Park and Hsinying District, the three main points of the city. Additionally, the budget to build the blue and green lines for Tainan’s MRT is estimated to be around NT$407 million (US$14 million).

Lin also said he expected that the MRT’s construction plan will pass the government’s inspection by the end of next year. Construction of the MRT lines should begin in 2019 and be completed in 2024.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/11/07
By: Chu Tse-wei and William Yen

Taipei, Nov. 7 (CNA) An international survey Tuesday ranked the civic knowledge of

Taiwanese eighth-grade students second highest out of 24 participating countries, according to the local organizer of the survey.

The countries and areas that participated in the survey were Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Russia, Germany, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Chile, Columbia, Dominican Republic, Peru, Mexico, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea.

The local organizer Liu Mei-hui (劉美慧) from National Taiwan Normal University said 4,454 eighth graders from 150 schools in Taiwan took part in the survey which had a total of 94,000 participants worldwide.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: November 7, 2017
By: Wang Cheng-chung and Frances Huang

TAIPEI (CNA) – Taiwan’s lawmakers amended the National Health Insurance Act on Tuesday to allow newborn babies of foreign residents in the country to be covered by the compulsory health insurance plan upon birth.

The newly revised health insurance rule reverses the current situation in which foreign parents with resident status in Taiwan can only obtain health insurance for babies six months after they are born.

The revision will take affect as soon as it goes through the routine step of being officially announced by the Presidential Office.

The amendment was considered because of concerns that the health of infants of legal foreign residents could suffer without coverage under the national insurance plan during the six-month vacuum.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-11-06

Premier William Lai has green-lighted revisions to the controversial labor law. Lai made

the decision on Monday in a bid to make things easier for both employers and employees.

The government amended the labor law last December to give workers “one fixed, and one flexible day off” per week. However, while the amendment was intended to protect laborers’ rights, it has come under fire from both employers and employees because of the hassle involved.

On Monday, Cabinet spokesperson Hsu Guo-yung said the premier has decided to relax the rules governing working hours. The revisions will allow laborers to take four days off every 14 days, and the maximum overtime per month will be increased from 46 hours to 54 hours.    [FULL  STORY]