Want China Times
Date: 2015-06-02
By: CNA

Taipei has decided to change its regulations and forbid the door chimes at

convenience stores from ringing at night, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection said on Saturday.

Officials said the new rules could take effect as early as July.

Most convenience store chains said they would comply with the new regulation, but Family Mart, the second biggest convenience store chain in Taiwan, voiced concerns that quieting the chimes could affect their employees’ safety late at night.

Employees on the night shift are not always at the counter, Family Mart said, and silencing the chimes would make it hard for them to know when customers are entering the store, raising potential safety issues.

Most convenience stores set up chimes at the door and in the storage room to alert their employees that somebody has entered, especially useful at night when usually only one employee is on duty at each store.

Environmental official Yen Ling-chen said there are 1,478 convenience stores in the city — many of them in residential areas — and the city received 12 complaints about the noise made by the stores’ chimes at the night last year, local media reported on Sunday.     [FULL STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/01
By: Christie Chen

Taipei, June 1 (CNA) The southern branch of the National Palace Museum (NPM), which will open on a trial basis on December 28, will offer audio tours in four Southeast Asian languages to benefit Southeast Asian immigrants in Taiwan.

In addition to Mandarin, Hoklo, English, Japanese and Korean, the NPM branch in the southern county of Chiayi will also offer audio tours in Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese and Indonesian to meet the needs of visitors who speak those languages, the museum said Monday.

There are currently about 500,000 first-generation immigrants in Taiwan, most of them from China and Southeast Asia, according to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior.

Built to promote cultural, social and economic development in central and southern Taiwan, the southern branch is being characterized as a “museum of Asian art and culture.”     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-06-01
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

Taiwan’s government is currently unable to abolish capital punishment because

society still needs time to reach a consensus on the issue, presidential spokesman Charles Chen cited President Ma Ying-jeou as saying Sunday.

Chen’s remark came after some interpreted a comment by Ma a day earlier as a sign that his administration might be considering abolishing the death penalty.

When asked by a reporter on his view of rising calls against the scrapping of the death penalty following the recent murder of an eight-year-old girl by an intruder at a Taipei school, Ma said opposing views have been heard for quite some time — some people believe that capital punishment does not provide a deterrent, while others believe that abolishing the punishment will encourage crime.

“I think we had better observe this for some more time,” Ma said.

On Sunday, Chen cited Ma as saying that the government is unable to scrap capital punishment at the the present time, but will continue to work toward reducing its use.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/06/01
By: Christie Chen

Taipei, June 1 (CNA) Celebrities are mourning the death of Taiwanese actor Shone

An (安鈞璨), who died of liver cancer on Monday at the age of 31.

“Don’t worry about sis (me), feel at ease playing in heaven. Remember to follow the light because that is where the bodhisattva will wait for you!” Taiwanese actress Ady An (安以軒), a close friend of the actor, wrote on her Sina Weibo microblog.

“Even though we have only worked together once, Shone was friendly and he loved to make friends with others. After hearing the news this morning, I feel very sorry and very shocked by the sudden news,” Hong Kong singer-actor Daniel Chan (陳曉東) wrote on his microblog.

Taiwanese actor Kingone Wang (王傳一), who was in the same boy band Comic Boyz as An, also took to his microblog to voice his disbelief at the actor’s death.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-06-01
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of Taiwan’s main opposition Democratic Progressive Party

and the party’s 2016 presidential candidate, held a closed-door forum with US academics in Los Angeles on Saturday on maintaining the cross-Taiwan Strait status quo.

After listening to her ideas, most of those present said they make sense, said Clayton Dube, director of the US-China Institute at the University of South California Annenberg Journalism School. Dube declined to elaborate on what Tsai discussed at the forum, as DPP Secretary-General Joseph Wu told reporters that “what was discussed will not be made public.”

Asked about the US view of the so-called 1992 Consensus, a tacit understanding between representatives of Taipei and Beijing in which the two sides accept the idea of “one China,” but retain their own respective interpretations, Dube said the US accepts whatever is agreed upon and conducted in peaceful means between Taiwan and China.     [FULL  STORY]

The defence minister, Kevin Andrews, called for all parties to exercise restraint, halt reclamation activities, refrain from provocative actions and ease tensions
A satellite image of what is claimed to be an airstrip under construction in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

The Guardian
Date: Sunday 31 May 2015
By: Australian Associated Press

Australia has urged China and south-east Asian countries squabbling over territory

in the South China Sea to sign a code of conduct immediately.

The defence minister, Kevin Andrews, issued a veiled swipe at China during a speech to an Asia Pacific security summit in Singapore on Sunday.

“We are particularly concerned at the prospect of militarisation of artificial structures,” Andrews told the summit, a reference to reports China had moved heavy weapons onto contested man-made islands a month ago.

China maintains it has sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, which is a major global shipping route and reportedly has oil and gas reserves.

It has ramped up construction of artificial islands in recent months, in a move some experts believe is aimed at bolstering its territorial claims.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei also claim parts of the sea.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/31
By: Evelyn Kao

Taipei, May 31 (CNA) An Indonesian female intern at Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital in Taipei suffered a fall in the coastal area of Chiupeng in Manchou, Pingtung County Sunday, requiring the National Airborne Service Corps to deploy a helicopter to airlift her to a hospital.

The 39-year-old woman, Nina Irawam, was found to be suffering from several abrasions after being hospitalized. She told Coast Guard personnel she fell unconscious after falling and when she came to, found herself on the rocky seashore and too weak to walk.

Irawam was hiking alone in the Nanjen Mountain area when she fell. She was spotted by anglers fishing on the shore, who informed the local fire department.     [FULL  STORY]