A candlelight vigil will be held for Indonesian governor “Ahok” at Taipei Main Station on May 14 at 6 p.m.

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/05/12
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A candlelight vigil is going to be held for the Christian

governor of Jakarta Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who was sentenced to two years in prison for blaspheming the Quran.

The vigil will be held at 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 14 at the Taipei Main Station Exit 3. Participants are requested to dress in red and white, the colors of the Indonesian flag, and burn candles as they sing the Indonesian national anthem in support of the jailed governor.

As of 2016, there were approximately 238,000 Indonesians in Taiwan, many of whom are migrant workers. As they have Sundays off they often gather on that day in and around the Taipei Main Station to socialize and shop in the underground mall and nearby Indonesian Street on Beiping West Road (北平西路), where many restaurants, salons and shops can be found.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/05/12
By: Huang Li-yun and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, May 12 (CNA) Power consumption peaked at 32.806 million kilowatts on Friday, the second-highest level seen in Taiwan so far this year as high temperatures engulfed the country, according to state-run Taiwan Power Company (Taipower).

Peak consumption was reached at 1:59 p.m., when the operating reserve margin fell to 4.08 percent, flashing an orange warning light that indicated a tight power supply, the company said.

It was the second-highest peak electricity usage in Taiwan so far this year, after reaching 33.011 million kilowatts the previous day, it said.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/05/12
By: Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Two Taiwanese were nabbed in Thailand for involving in a telecommunications fraud scam targeting people in China, police said Friday.

The two suspects, identified by their surnames of Cheng and Chou, are expected to be deported back to Taiwan soon, police said.

Six Chinese nationals and a Thai national were also arrested in the raid conducted jointly by Taiwanese and Thai police in Bangkok on May 9, according to the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB).

An investigation found that the fraud ring, led by a Taiwanese man surnamed Liang, has had bases in various Southeast Asian countries and began operating in Thailand in March this year, the bureau said.    [FULL  STORY]

Would you miss the feeling of wind blowing through your hair as you cruise the streets of Taipei?

The News Lens
Date: 2017/05/11
By: Kuan Chen

Taiwan should require all cyclists to wear a helmet, according to an opposition

legislator who today proposed a new law that could make it illegal to ride without a helmet.

Taiwan’s public bike sharing system, YouBike, is extremely popular with hundreds of thousands of people regularly using the system across the island-nation. According to the BBC, Taipei City alone saw 22 million rentals in 2014 and new rental stations continue to be rolled-out.

According to Storm Media, there were about 430 accidents on YouBike’s in 2016, implying an accident rate of one in every 100,000 rides.    [FULL  STORY]

The price of cigarettes will increase by NT$20 (US$0.6) per pack starting on June 20th

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/05/11
By: Maggie Huang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministery of Finance announced Thursday that the

price of cigarettes will increase by NT$20 (US$0.6) per pack starting on June 20th, after the Legislature passed the third and final reading of an amendment to the Tobacco and Alcohol Tax.

The amendment raises the cigarette tax from NT$590 per 1,000 cigarettes (per kilogram) to NT$1,590, which translates into a tax per packet of NT$31.8, up from the current NT$11.8.

The increase will generate NT$23.3 billion in additional tax revenue per year, which will be used to fund the long-term care program for seniors, according to the Finance Ministry.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/05/11
By: Chen Chi-ching and Ko Lin

Taipei, May 11 (CNA) The ban on the harvesting of sea urchins is to be temporarily lifted in Penghu from June 16 to August 31, the county’s Agriculture and Fisheries said on Thursday.

However, catches must be limited to specimens larger than eight centimeters in diameter, officials added.

A ban on the harvesting of sea urchins has been in place in Penghu since last year due to low population count.

Since then, the island’s residents have become more aware of the importance of sea urchin conservation.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: May 12, 2017
By: Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with CNA

The Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee on Wednesday passed a

review of a bill to promote Aboriginal languages, which would grant them the legal status of “national languages” and funnel subsidies for their promotion.

Following two days of clause-by-clause review, which saw the participation of Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Icyang Parod, the bill was passed by the committee and is to be submitted to a general assembly without further cross-caucus negotiations.

Local governments with authority over designated Aboriginal areas are to be responsible for hiring full-time staff to promote Aboriginal languages, according to the bill, which also requires the central government to help local governments and Aboriginal communities create organizations to promote Aboriginal languages.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: May 12, 2017
By: Chris Chang

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Kon Wen Educational Organization (功文文教機構) is a leading

private tutoring organization, which has paved the way for Taiwan’s out-of-school mathematics teaching for the past 40 years.

How did they do it? The organization’s founder and president Tsai Hsueh-ni (蔡雪泥) shared with us the story behind Kon Wen’s monumental success. The following is an edited transcript of our conversation.

How did Kon Wen Education first come to be?

During my college years, I studied family studies and cosmetics in Japan for a couple of years, and that’s when I first heard of Kumon Method, or the seed of our Kon Wen, so to speak.

After coming back to Taiwan, I was a teacher for about ten years, teaching family studies and cosmetics at a few education institutes, such as the Chinese Culture University (文化大學), Shih Chien School of Home Economics (實踐家專) and Zhong-Shan Girls High School (中山女高), for about ten years.    [FULL  STORY]