Taipei Times
Date: Feb 11, 2016
By William Lowther / Staff reporter in WASHINGTON

Washington’s need to defend Taiwan from a Chinese attack is greater today than it was 30 years ago, a leading US military strategist said on Tuesday.

“Taiwan is everything we preach about — it is what we want other countries to be,” said Thomas McNaugher, director of studies at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies.

Invading Taiwan would be an “extremely dicey” operation, McNaugher told an Atlantic Council discussion titled “Conflict in the Taiwan Strait?”
Amphibious assaults are very tough and China does not have any particular experience in that area, he said.

Rather than a direct attack, Beijing might try a blockade if it decided to force unification, he said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 09, 2016
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The destruction in Tainan following a strong earthquake on Saturday was largely due to a geological factor called the “site effect,” which was why the city sustained more serious damage than the area of the quake’s epicenter, Central Weather Bureau (CWB) Director-General Shin Tzay-chyn (辛在勤) said.

Kaohsiung’s Meinong District (美濃), the center of the magnitude 6.4 earthquake, hardly suffered any damage, while parts of neighboring Tainan were devastated, Shin said.

He said most earthquakes in southern Taiwan are concentrated along a fault line stretching from Jiasian (甲仙) in Kaohsiung to Sinhua (新化) in Tainan.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 10, 2016
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The Pulitzer Prize-winning US poet Robert Hass will be among the authors attending the 2016 Taipei International Book Exhibition, which is scheduled to open on Tuesday next week.

Hass, who was US poet laureate from 1995 to 1997, will take part in a talk at the six-day fair on Thursday next week with his wife, Brenda Hillman, who is also a poet, according to the Taipei Book Fair Foundation.

Hass’ collection Time and Materials won the 2007 National Book Award and shared the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Hillman’s collection Practical Water won the 2009 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for poetry.

Other foreign guests scheduled to attend the fair include bestselling Polish fantasy author Andrzej Sapkowski, known for his series The Witcher, New Zealand illustrator Donovan Bixley and award-winning Israeli writer Etgar Keret.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-09
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Rescuers deployed heavy machinery Tuesday in a renewed effort to locate more than 120 people trapped in the rubble of a collapsed apartment complex as the 72-hour “golden window” for finding survivors just passed.

Tainan Mayor William Lai gave rescue teams the “go” sign at 4 a.m. to expedite the rescue effort because time is running out to save any of the people who remain trapped and might still be alive.

According to authorities, rescuers have found signs of life in Blocks F and E among the Weiguan Jinlong debris, and are currently working to locate the survivors.

There have been some dramatic rescues, including an eight-year-old girl and three others pulled from the wreckage Monday.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 07, 2016
By: Hung Jui-chin / Staff reporter

A powerful magnitude 6.4 earthquake that struck southern Taiwan yesterday morning damaged at least 23 historical buildings in Tainan, with the bell tower next to Fengshen Temple (風神廟) and the Reception Archway (接官亭) collapsing, city government officials said.

The wooden pillar on the second floor of the Yanshui Octangle Building (鹽水八角樓) is suspected to have shifted and some bricks fell off the outer wall. Cracks were discovered at the Tainan Grand Matsu Temple (台南大天后宮), while the main gate shifted and some fragmented ceramic decorations fell off.

The Cultural Affairs Bureau said that the collapse of the Fengshen Temple bell tower and the Reception Archway is the most serious damage it has uncovered. However, the bureau added that both the bell tower and the drum tower had previously been rebuilt, as the bell tower was relocated due to road construction, and the drum tower is a complete replica of the original.

The Tainan Municipal Cultural Heritage Administration said that as the nearby drum tower was also damaged, it has decided to protect it by first stabilizing the area and erecting fences around it for the safety of passers-by.     [FULL  STORY]