Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/09
By: Peggy Tsai and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Aug. 9 (CNA) The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has launched online polls on

controversial issues related to marriage, including that of same-sex marriage, to gauge public opinion on plans being drafted or policies being carried out.

Among the questions are: “Do you support establishing a ‘Same-sex Partnership Act’?”, “Do you support legislation that gives homosexuals the right to have ‘marriage-like’ or ‘marital’ relations?”, and “Should adultery be decriminalized?”

Each issue on the platform at http://join.gov.tw/openup/ is open for discussion for three months, with Internet users welcome to vote in favor of or against a certain policy.     [FULL  STORY]

Foxcus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/08
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Aug. 8 (CNA) Major Taiwanese carriers have announced adjustments to their flight schedules for Sunday after suffering several disruptions because of Typhoon Soudelor, which battered Taiwan with torrential rains and powerful gusts for most of Saturday.

EVA Airways said flight BR189 from Tokyo Haneda to Taipei Songshan will be canceled, and some of its flights that were scheduled to leave Saturday evening will be postponed to Sunday.

They include flights BR28 from Taoyuan to San Fransisco; BR16 from Taoyuan to Los Angeles; BR26 from Taoyuan to Seattle; and BR231 from Taoyuan to Surabaya.

TransAsia Airways said all of its international and cross-strait flights will operate according to schedule on Sunday, but domestic flights departing before 10 a.m. will be canceled.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-08-08
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taipei Dome developer Farglory Group will face a fine of

NT$90,000 (US$2,800) after pieces of sheet metal were blown into a nearby road during Typhoon Soudelor, the Taipei City Government said Saturday.

The typhoon, which made landfall on Taiwan’s east coast at 4:40 a.m. and left from Yunlin County more than six hours later, brought damage to buildings and trees nationwide.

From 10 p.m. Friday, security staff at the unfinished Taipei Dome found six to ten pieces of sheet metal to have been blown off the complex, according to the city’s urban development chief, Jou Min Lin.

As a result of the incident, traffic restrictions came into effect on nearby Zhongxiao East Road and Keelung Road, he said.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-08-08
By: CNA

Residents in central, southern Taiwan and mountainous areas in southeastern Taiwan’s

Taitung county should heighten their alert against severe weather due to southwestern winds introduced by Typhoon Soudelor as it moves away from the island, the Central Weather Bureau said Saturday.

As of 1:00pm, the storm was centered 30 km east-northeast of outlying Penghu county, moving at a speed of 18 km per hour in a northwesterly direction, the bureau said.

It is packing maximum sustained winds of 144 km per hour, with gusts reaching 180 km per hour, it said.

Although gusty winds and rainfall have subsided in northern Taiwan after Soudelor exited into the Taiwan Strait mid-morning, the storm’s impact on central and southern parts of the country has just begun to reach its fullest, forecasters warned.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/08
By: Elaine Hou

Taipei, Aug. 8 (CNA) The Guatemalan government presented a medal to Taiwan’s ambassador to Guatemala Adolfo Sun (孫大成) on Friday, in recognition of his efforts to promote bilateral cooperative projects during his tenure over the past seven years.

Guatemalan Defense Minister Manuel Lopez conferred Sun with a medal that is the highest military decoration in the Central American country during a ceremony Friday (Guatemala time).

Lopez praised Sun for his efforts in pushing for various programs between the two diplomatic allies in such areas as military education, transportation, public health, agriculture, justice and environmental protection.     [FULL  STORY]

The Canberra Times
Date: August 7, 2015
By: Tom McIlroy,Legislative Assembly reporter at The Canberra Times

An Assembly delegation led by Speaker Vicki Dunne has been cleared to visit Taiwan

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later this month after an ethics review found it would not be in breach of official travel rules.

A meeting of the Assembly’s Commonwealth Parliamentary Association branch held on Friday unanimously passed a motion that members refrain from accepting spouse travel funded by third parties until a further review is completed.

The advice from ethics and integrity adviser Stephen Skehill came after a week of debate about members’ travel and entitlements, prompted by Mrs Dunne’s decision to take her husband Lyle Dunne on a trip to Malaysia for a meeting of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in April.

 

The Speaker sought the advice after accepting an invitation for the delegation, departing on August 17 and including Labor backbencher Chris Bourke and Liberal Andrew Wall. She has also been cleared to take her senior adviser, Clinton White, on the trip, which will be fully paid for by the Taipei government.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/08/07
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Aug. 7 (CNA) The Ministry of Labor said Friday it will relax restrictions on hiring foreign caregivers for elderly people with minor disabilities starting Saturday, a move it said will benefit 35,000 senior citizens.

The ministry said it will expand the criteria of those eligible to hire a foreign caregiver to anyone aged 85 or over who meets at least one variable addressed in the Barthel index, a scale used to measure the extent to which people can function independently in daily live.

As the health of elderly people can deteriorate quickly, leaving them more incapacitated in a relatively short period of time, the new measure can better protect them by making more manpower available to help them, the ministry said.

Under existing regulations, senior citizens over the age 80 must be diagnosed to be badly in need of home care and score below 60 on the Barthel Index to be entitled to hire a foreign caregiver.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-08-07
By: CNA

Taiwan’s ongoing construction on Taiping Island in the South China Sea is for the

purposes of humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and environmental protection, a Taiwanese foreign affairs official said Thursday.

Facilities being built on Taiping and the deployment of the Taiwanese coast guard to the Taiwan-controlled island are for humanitarian assistance and environmental protection purposes, not to strengthen the country’s military presence in the disputed region, said Christine Hsueh, director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of North American Affairs, at a news briefing.

Her remarks came in response to questions on the United States’ recent call for a halt to reclamation, construction and aggressive actions that could further heighten tensions in the South China Sea.     [FULL  STORY]