Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/02
By: Christie Chen

Taipei, April 2 (CNA) The National Taiwan Museum on Thursday added its name to a long list of over 100 locations nationwide where people can drop off books that they have brought back from Southeast Asia for the migrant workers and foreign spouses in Taiwan.

The museum is the first public museum to join the “Bring a Book Back to Taiwan that You Cannot Read” movement, initiated in January by Chang Cheng (張正), secretary-general of Chinese Association for Foreign Spouses and Labor’s Voice and co-founder of Taiwan’s first Southeast Asia-themed bookstore, Southeast Asian Migrant Inspired (望見書間).     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/01
By: Milly Lin and Ted Chen

Taipei, April 1 (CNA) Taiwan may be facing power shortages by May this year, the state-run Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower, 台電) warned Wednesday, citing problems related to an extended drought and maintenance work at the country’s nuclear power plants.

The No. 1 generator at the first nuclear power plant has been down since last December due to a component failure, and the Atomic Energy Council has not yet given approval for the generator to be put back online although it has received a report on the failure, Taipower said.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-01
By: CNA

Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang on Tuesday countered opposition Democratic Progressive Party

leader Tsai Ing-wen’s dismissal of a shift to a parliamentary system of government, saying that she was once in favor of such a change and that her opposition now might be a political ploy.

KMT spokesperson Yang Wei-chung said that when she was running for the DPP leadership last year, Tsai declared that “I also support a switch from the presidential system or semi-presidential system to the parliamentary system.”

The KMT move came a day after Tsai told a group of party lawmakers that “the parliamentary system is out of the question,” in her first declaration of her position on a KMT proposal to revise the country’s Constitution to create such a system. Tsai based her claim on what she said is mainstream public opinion in which the majority of the public prefers to directly vote for their president.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/04/01
By: Sophia Yeh, Kelven Huang, Wei Shu and S.C. Chang

Taipei, April 1 (CNA) Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), on Wednesday criticized the government as “dwarfing the national status” by asking China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) to forward Taiwan’s letter of intent to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

The government sent its letter of intent to the TAO, which then forwarded it to the AIIB’s provisional secretariat, while the Ministry of Finance sent a copy to the AIIB on Tuesday, the deadline for applications to join as a founding member, according to local media reports.

Tsai said the Presidential Office took the lead in announcing that Taiwan’s application would be passed on to the AIIB secretariat by the TAO.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/03/31
By: Bien Chin-feng, Christie Chen and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, March 31 (CNA) Turkish Airlines flight TK24, the first ever direct flight from Istanbul to Taipei, arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) Tuesday.

The Airbus A340-300, with 34 business-class seats and 236 economy-class seats, was carrying 270 passengers.

Turkey’s representative to Taiwan, Ismet Erikan, told CNA March 5 that the direct flights will be “a new window, a new door-opening for the people of Taiwan, for the business circles of Taiwan” and will definitely “increase trade, tourism and academic cooperation” between the two countries.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-03-31
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

Indonesia will continue to send fishermen to work on Taiwanese vessels, an Indonesian official

said Sunday.

Agusdin Subiantoro, deputy head of the Agency of Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers, was responding to reports that Indonesia had decided to stop sending fishermen to Taiwan. He said the suspension was a previous notification, which the government will soon lift.

The Indonesian government is now preparing to resume sending fishermen to Taiwan, he added.

Wang Han-yuan, a section chief of Taiwan’s representative office in Indonesia, said the office has asked the agency about the matter.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/03/31
By: Wu Jhe-hao and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, March 31 (CNA) Prosecutors in Changhua County have found more than 80 metric tons of damp-affected pepper powder products that may contain industrial-grade magnesium carbonate (碳酸鎂) and up to 200 downstream companies might also have received the products, the Changhua District Prosecutors’ Office said Tuesday.

The prosecutors’ office and Changhua public health authorities learned that a company in Taichung is suspected of having sold industrial-grade magnesium carbonate to three pepper powder and curry powder manufacturers in the county who between them make 39 types of pepper powder and curry powder products.     [FULL  STORY]