Page Three

No lessons learned from 921: expert

QUAKE-PROOFING:A professor said that the central and local governments have failed to live up to their duties to inspect buildings and monitor construction

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 08, 2016
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The government has failed to learn a lesson from the 921 Earthquake that hit Taiwan in 1999, and has allowed poorly constructed buildings to continue to exist, an expert said on Sunday, calling on the authorities to make drastic changes to prevent further quake disasters.

The Weiguan Jinlong complex in Tainan should not have collapsed during the magnitude 6.4 quake on Feb. 6, National Taiwan University professor Chern Jenn-chuan (陳振川) said at the opening of a Taipei forum on the quake resistance capacity of buildings in Taiwan.

He accused the government of shirking its responsibility.

Chern, who teaches in the university’s Department of Civil Engineering, served as head of the Executive Yuan’s Public Construction Commission from 2012 to 2013.

After the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, academics discovered that mixed-purpose buildings — ones that contain residences and commercial properties — and which are located on street corners are the most vulnerable to collapse in such disasters, Chern said.     [FULL  STORY]

Warm weather forecast to cool down

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-06
By: Central News Agency

The current warm weather is forecast to last until Wednesday, when the mercury is expected to fall to below 20 degrees Celsius across Taiwan at night, according to the Central Weather Bureau.

Due to an approaching cold front that will begin to blanket Taiwan from late Wednesday, daytime highs in Taipei will drop from 24 degrees to around 12-13 degrees from Thursday to Sunday, the bureau said. Greater moisture and precipitation is expected on Thursday, when the temperature will begin to go down.

At the same time, nighttime temperatures in central and southern Taiwan will dip to 15-19 degrees, from the current daytime high of 25-28 degrees.

A daytime high of 29.4 degrees was recorded in Taipei Saturday, and the weather was forecast to remain the same in the capital city Sunday, although with cloudier skies.     [FULL  STORY]

Tainan to investigate pet dogs’ suspected fall to death

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/06
By: Yang Sz-ruei and Kay Liu

Taipei, March 6 (CNA) An investigation will be launched into the death of two pet dogs, which were suspected to have been thrown from where their owner lives on the ninth floor in Tainan Saturday.

According to the Tainan City Fire Bureau, it received a call Saturday night after bodies of the dogs, which seemed to fall from a high place, were found outside a building.

Policemen went to check residents on the ninth floor of the building, after a man recognized the dogs were the ones adopted by his mother, who lived on the floor.

Police said his 41-year-old mother seemed to have been drinking and lost her temper when she was visited by policemen, and this led to the woman being suspected of throwing the dogs to death.

Lee Chao-chuan (李朝全), head of the Tainan City Animal Health Inspection and Quarantine Institute, said Sunday that his office will work with police to investigate the incident.     [FULL  STORY]

Aborigines file for interpretation on 2014 hunting ruling

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 07, 2016
By: Huang Po-hsin, Wu Hsin-tien, Chen Hsien-yi and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writer

Aborigine hunters prosecuted in terms of the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) in

Bunun Aborigine Tama Talum raises his fist during a media event on Dec. 14 last year outside the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Taipei, calling for an extraordinary appeal against his jail sentence for hunting. Photo: CNA

Bunun Aborigine Tama Talum raises his fist during a media event on Dec. 14 last year outside the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office in Taipei, calling for an extraordinary appeal against his jail sentence for hunting. Photo: CNA

2014 are to file for a constitutional interpretation on the ruling, saying that the ruling conflicted with Article 19 of the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法) as well as constitutionally protected rights.

Bunun Aborigne Tama Talum, 56, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for violating the Wildlife Conservation Act and the Act Governing the Control of Guns, Ammunition and Knives (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例), for hunting a Formosan Reeve’s muntjac and a goat in 2013 to provide fresh meat for his 94-year-old mother.

Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Prosecutor-General Yen Ta-ho (顏大和) filed an extraordinary appeal against a jail sentence on grounds of suspected discrimination against Aboriginal culture in December last year.

Talum and lawyers on Friday last week filed an 80-page application for a constitutional interpretation.

Puyuma Aborigine Pan Chih-chiang (潘志強), who was arrested on similar charges, said in tears that they hoped Aborigines’ mandate to continue their hunting culture would be placed on an equal footing with the conservation of the culture of the Han people.     [FULL  STORY]

KMT leadership campaign heats up

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-05
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The campaign for the March 26 Kuomintang chairmanship 6739267election heated up Saturday, with calls not to let it come to a second round and with candidates exchanging allegations.

Following its devastating defeat in both presidential and legislative elections last January 16, the KMT has been focused on finding a new leader. Acting chairwoman Huang Min-hui, former Legislative Vice Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu, legislator Apollo Chen and Taipei City Councilor Lee Hsin all vie for the position.

Hung said Saturday that while the Democratic Progressive Party was preparing to rule the country, the KMT should not be wasting more time. If no single candidate won an absolute majority in the March 26 election, a second round might have to be held in April, while DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen would be sworn in as president on May 20.

Hung complained that the party was wasting time, since originally the date for the election had been agreed as February 27. While the DPP was preparing to govern, it would be bad if the KMT still did not succeed in picking a new leader, she said.     [FULL  STORY]

Singer Selina’s marriage over after 4 years, 4 months

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/05
By: Wang Jing-yi and Jay Chen

Taipei, March 5 (CNA) Selina, a member of the three-women Mandopop group S.H.E., 37658100and her husband Chang Cheng-chung (張承中) have announced that their marriage is over after four years and four months.

The couple announced their divorce on their separate Facebook pages late Friday. They did not mention when the divorce was or would be finalized, with Selina saying only that they “have decided to get a divorce.”

Jen, whose real name is Jen Chia-hsuan (任家萱), said that she had been “negligent” in the maintenance of her marriage and family. “After getting married, I continued to enjoy my work and focused on my career,” said the 34-year-old singer.

After getting married, she said, her values have changed and is no longer a person who lives only for love.

In his Facebook post, Chang said he is to blame for the fact that their relationship has come to an end. “I should bear the lion’s share of the responsibility for a failed marriage,” he said, describing himself as “neither romantic nor considerate.”     [FULL  STORY]

Legislators agree on TV broadcasts for transparency

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 06, 2016
By: Staff Writer, with CNA

Lawmakers on Friday agreed to commission a TV station to broadcast legislative proceedings, a move aimed at improving legislative transparency that is expected to be carried out in the coming months, Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said.

The legislative caucuses of the Democratic Progressive Party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the New Power Party and the People First Party met on Friday and agreed to look for a TV station willing to broadcast legislative proceedings for free, the DPP’s Su said on Friday.

After the TV station is chosen, the free service would hold a trial run during the current legislative session that started last month, Su said.

The trial run would aim to identify problems that might arise during broadcasts of legislative proceedings to ensure smooth broadcasts when the service is formally launched during the next legislative session, which is to begin in September, Su told reporters.     [FULL  STORY]

American YouTuber tries and loves Taiwanese snacks

Taiwan Treat – a service that puts Taiwan in a snack box

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-04
By: Chia Lee, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Joshua David Evans , an American singer and famous Youtuber, posted a

Named “TASTING YUMMY CHINESE SNACKS,” the video saw Joshua tasting Taiwanese traditional snacks such as red bean pie, mochi, I-MEI strawberry puff, and grain vegetarian meat floss, of which the last two seemed to be his favorite.

Named “TASTING YUMMY CHINESE SNACKS,” the video saw Joshua tasting Taiwanese traditional snacks such as red bean pie, mochi, I-MEI strawberry puff, and grain vegetarian meat floss, of which the last two seemed to be his favorite.

video on YouTube on March 1, in which he tried out several Taiwanese snacks from a couple of well-known local brands such as I-MEI and Snow Lover for the first time.

Named “TASTING YUMMY CHINESE SNACKS,” the video saw Joshua tasting Taiwanese traditional snacks such as red bean pie, mochi, I-MEI strawberry puff, and grain vegetarian meat floss, of which the last two seemed to be his favorites.

In fact, Taiwanese snacks are gaining popularity in the United States.

As subscription box business has become a rapidly growing market, new companies are popping up every day selling various products ranging from women’s cosmetics to healthy snacks.

Taiwan Treat, for instance, is a newly emerging snack box subscription business founded by Abraham Hsu, an American-born Taiwanese, whose love for Taiwanese food has turned into a business helping people discover Taiwanese snacks.     [FULL  STORY]

Kinmen County to market its tourism in China

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/04
By: Amy Huang and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, March 4 (CNA) Kinmen County is planning marketing events in nine

CNA file photo

CNA file photo

Chinese cities this year to promote tourism in the county and will invite key travel agencies to attend.

Kinmen’s Tourism Department said it plans to hold the events in Dalian and Tieling in Liaoning Province in May and June, in Qingdao and Yantai in Shandong Province in July, and in Shenzhen and Dongguan in Guangdong Province in September.

It will also visit Wuhan in Hubei Province and Zhengzhou in Henan Province in October and Shanghai in November, it said.

The events will be co-organized by the county government, the Kinmen Association of Travel Agents and Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor Inc., it said.

The county government has held similar tourism marketing events in 39 Chinese cities over the past three years.     [FULL  STORY]

Traditional culture spotlighted by Taiwan Lantern Festival

Taiwan Today
Date: March 4, 2016

The 2016 Taiwan Lantern Festival wraps up March 6 in Taoyuan City, bringing

Eye-catching colors combined with cutting-edge technology are helping boost the popularity of this year’s Taiwan Lantern Festival in Taoyuan City. (CNA)

Eye-catching colors combined with cutting-edge technology are helping boost the popularity of this year’s Taiwan Lantern Festival in Taoyuan City. (CNA)

the curtain down on a monthlong islandwide celebration of the Lunar New Year.

Held for the first time in the northern Taiwan metropolis, the annual event features a 26-meter-high main lantern modeled after the Monkey King from the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West.” The design was selected to celebrate the Year of the Monkey in the Chinese zodiac.

Enthusiastic response for the festival staged on a 32-hectare site surrounding the high-speed rail station at Taoyuan bumped up single-day visitor numbers to 3.69 million—a record in the festival’s 27-year history—and is expected to push overall attendance above 20 million.

Celebrated at the first full moon of the Lunar New Year, the event marks the final day of traditional festivities. It also underscores Taiwan’s cultural vibrancy, as evidenced by a wide range of activities hosted around the nation.

Highlights include lantern exhibitions and firework displays organized by Taipei and Kaohsiung cities in the north and south of Taiwan, respectively. The events attract millions of visitors from home and abroad each year.     [FULL  STORY]