SECURITY DUTIES:The special forces teams trained to protect presidential candidates and their families this year include six women each, to provide ‘complete protection’

Taipei Times
Date:  Nov 14, 2015
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Special forces units assigned to provide protection for presidential candidates were

launched by the National Security Bureau (NSB) yesterday, with the team members demonstrating firearms training, martial arts skills and high-tech telecommunication devices.

The three teams of 55 special forces members each were last week assigned to personal protection duties for the three major parties’ presidential and vice presidential candidates.

They were commissioned at the bureau-administered Special Service Command Center yesterday morning.

NSB Director-General Yang Kuo-chiang (楊國強) presided over the ceremony, with top officials from the Central Election Commission, Ministry of National Defense, National Police Agency, Military Police Command and representatives from the political parties in attendance.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-11-12
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu is considering turning the city’s defunct school campuses into

retirement homes or day centers for the elderly, reports said Thursday.

“Besides taking care of the city’s senior citizens, we can help turn these empty grounds into something meaningful,” Chu said.

During a question-and-answer session at the Kaohsiung City Council in the morning, Democratic Progressive Party Councilor Huang Shu-mei called on the government to aid in setting up new senior home communities as existing care centers have been overwhelmed by the city’s ageing population.

“Although majority of the elderly favor living at home and being taken care of by their children, the city still lacks sufficient facilities to look after the growing demand,” Huang said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: November 12, 2015

The winners of the Taiwan Literature Awards were unveiled Nov. 9 by the Tainan City-based

National Museum of Taiwan Literature, which granted a total of NT$1.8 million (US$54,791) in prizes to five outstanding writers.

Works by novelists Wu Ming-yi and Gan Yao-ming, poet Wu Cheng, playwright Shen Wan-ting and Hakka short story writer Yeh Kuo-chu came out on top in the awards’ four genres.

In “The Stolen Bicycle,” novelist Wu writes about the pursuit of a missing bike. The protagonist follows in his father’s journey from the lands of the indigenous Tsou group, Wanhua District in Taipei and military dependents’ villages in Kaohsiung to Malaysia and the forests of northern Myanmar, all the while painting a portrait of common people’s lives during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and the turbulent era afterward.

Judge Gu Meng-ren, himself a prestigious writer, said Wu employed delicate writing skills in his detailed descriptions to create a fantastic, suspenseful story based on historical events. “In addition to expressing respect for vanishing traditional handicraft skills, Wu also offers his unique views of humanity and war.”     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/11/11
By: S.F. Wang, C.C. Kuo and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Nov. 11 (CNA) Three separate railway accidents involving Tze-Chiang (自強號) express trains occurred in Taiwan in a single day on Wednesday, resulting in two deaths, according to the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA).

In Pingtung in southern Taiwan, a man was fatally struck by a train as he tried to cross the tracks on a section of the railway between two stations, the TRA said.

The train service on that line was suspended for 64 minutes due to the accident, which affected some 1,660 passengers, the TRA said.

A similar accident occurred later in the day in Tainan, also in southern Taiwan, when a Tze-Chiang train hit a pedestrian who was trying to cross a railway line. The pedestrian died on the spot. Service on the line was halted for 33 minutes, which affected about 7,000 people because it was just after school and work hours.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: November 11, 2015

Taiwan’s determination to achieve greater participation in regional economic integration will

be highlighted at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders’ Meeting, according to former Vice President Vincent C. Siew Nov. 11.

“I will take the opportunity to promote the government’s commitment in pursuing further trade liberalization so as to join multilateral trade blocs such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership,” he said.

“Participation in these accords will ensure that Taiwan stays actively involved in the study and planning for the Free Trade Agreement of the Asia-Pacific,” he said, adding that Taiwan was invited to join a policy study group during last year’s APEC gathering in Beijing.

The former vice president, who is President Ma Ying-jeou’s special envoy for the Nov. 18-19 meeting in Manila, the Philippines, made the remarks during a news conference in Taipei City.

Also in attendance were Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia, Minister of Economic Affairs Deng Chen-chung, National Development Council Minister Duh Tyzz-jiun and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruce Linghu.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-11-10
By: Jocylin FC, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

As the supporters of Kuomintang and One China policy criticizes the outrage of a media

personality at Ma-Xi meeting on November 7, the society of Taiwan digs deeper into the incident. Media personality Clara Chou, challenged the Minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council Zhang Zhijun when he held the press conference on the behalf of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) after Ma-Xi meeting.

On November 7, Chou tried to ask questions at the Ma-Xi meeting press conference when Zhang only allowed China related news agencies such as China Times, PRC official press agency Xinhua News and China Review to pose questions. None of the international and Taiwanese media could speak during the 30 minutes questions. At President Ma Ying-jeou’s international press conference, the media who could pose questions were also staged. Chou tried to protest at the scene because she believes “ it is the duty of journalist to challenge the ruling powers instead of blindly reflecting the status quo.” Journalists should act as a watchdog of the society and speak up when the freedom of press is hindered.     [FULL  STORY]