Taipei Times
Date: Apr 05, 2016
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

Protesters yesterday festooned the gates and walls of the legislature in Taipei with flowers,

ribbons and paper cranes to urge the passage of harsher penalties for murderers, following the decapitation of a four-year-old girl on Monday last week.

Yellow ribbons strung with paper cranes hung from the bars of the western fence of the legislative compound, with white roses and yellow chrysanthemums tied to the top of the bars.

The cranes were folded on site from paper printed with calls for the enforcement of “punitive laws” and “severe punishment,” along with prayers for well-being.

Event organizer Kelly Chen (陳思婷) said that the event was intended as a memorial to the four-year-old girl who was decapitated in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) last week, while spurring legislators to enact harsher penalties for child murderers.

“Murderers deserve to be sentenced to death, but anyone who kills a defenseless child should be subject to severe punishment before the death sentence is carried out,” she said, citing “whipping” as an example. “Otherwise, people won’t care enough because they know that the worse they can expect is a painless death.”     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-03
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) announced on Sunday that the fares of the Alishan Forest Railway will go up for the first time in 20 years from May 1, with the biggest increase being up to 100 percent.

The TRA said that the fare hike was intended to reflect the increased cost of operating the Alishan Forest Railway, but the increase can scarcely make up the balance.

The major fare increases include a 60 percent increase from NT$240 to NT$384 for a trip from Chiayi Station to Fenchihu Station on the main line, as well as a 50 percent hike from NT$100 to NT$150 for a trip between Alishan Station and Chusan Station, and a 100 percent from NT$50 to NT$100 for both trips from Alishan Station and Shenmu (Sacred Tree) Station and from Alishan Station to Zhaoping Station on the branch lines.

The Alishan Forest Railway, situated in the remote high-mountain region, uses more human and material resources to operate than ordinary railways, the TRA said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/02
By: Wei Shu and Romulo Huang

Taipei, April 2 (CNA) Formosa Petrochemical Corp. (台塑石化), a private gasoline supplier in Taiwan, announced Saturday that it will cut its gasoline and diesel prices by NT$0.3 (US$0.009) and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, next week, starting from April 4 at 1 a.m.

Formosa Petrochemical said it decided to lower the prices after the weighted average of international crude oil prices fell this past week, while taking competitive factors of the domestic market into account.

Formosa Petrochemical has been implementing its fuel price cuts a day earlier than state-owned oil supplier CPC Corp., Taiwan (中油), its major rival in the local market, since February.

CPC is scheduled to announce its price adjustments Sunday noon, with the new prices set to take effect at midnight.

After the latest price adjustments, fuel prices at Formosa Petrochemical gas stations will decline to NT$18.1 per liter for super diesel, NT$21 per liter for 92 octane unleaded, NT$22.5 per liter for 95+ octane unleaded and NT$24.8 per liter for 98 octane unleaded.      [SOURCE]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-01
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je’s popularity was falling dangerously close to the public’s level of dissatisfaction, according to an opinion poll by the Want Want China Times Group published Friday.

The outspoken independent was elected by a landslide in November 2014 and took office one month later.

Support for Ko stood at 42.4 percent but dissatisfaction at 39.1 percent, the closest result since his election, said the China Times Weekly, which commissioned the poll from the group’s opinion survey company.

Since the last similar poll published on February 3, satisfaction with Ko had dropped by more than 5 percent from 47.7 percent, while dissatisfaction grew by 9 percent from 30.1 percent.

The magazine suggested that the mayor’s ratings were close to a “death cross,” the point where the negative opinions surpass the positive ones.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/01
By: Hsieh Chia-chen and Y.F. Low

Taipei, April 1 (CNA) The Presidential Office on Friday reiterated President Ma Ying-jeou’s

(馬英九) commitment to promote peace across the Taiwan Strait, after the Taiwan issue was raised during a meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).

During the meeting held on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in Washington on Thursday, Xi urged the United States to continue to take substantial steps to maintain the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency.

The two leaders also discussed issues related to the South China Sea.

Presidential Office spokesperson Ma Wei-kuo (馬瑋國) said the administration of President Ma has adhered to the “no unification, no independence, no use of force” approach to maintain the cross-strait status quo based on the Republic of China Constitution.

It has also been promoting the peaceful development of cross-strait ties on the basis of the “1992 consensus” of “one China, different interpretations,” Ma said.     [FULL  STORY]

READY TO FIGHT:Hung said she would reform the party’s think tank, uniting it with the legislative party caucus to turn it into the caucus’ ‘ammunition depot’

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 02, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) attended a KMT

caucus meeting yesterday, appearing at the Legislative Yuan as party chairwoman for the first time.

She welcomes communication, Hung said during the meeting, calling on legislators to freely express their opinions.

Saying that there are only “comrades, no enemies” within the party, Hung added that the KMT, despite being a minority party, should exert its power of oversight.

She said that the KMT was often “hijacked by the minority” when it was a majority party, adding that party supporters said that there was no point in them giving the KMT the majority of seats in the legislature with many bills blocked.

Hung said she hopes that the 35 legislators the KMT has could become a strong team and refrain from “opposing [bills] just for the sake of opposition.”     [FULL  STORY]