UNREACTIVE? The ‘Apple Daily’ reported that locals had complained about smelly groundwater since last month, but the utility did not confirm it until Sunday

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 05, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

A leak of nearly 5,000 liters of wastewater contaminated with oil was reported at a CPC Corp, Taiwan mine

in Miaoli County’s Tongsiao Township (通霄) yesterday, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said, adding that an investigation was under way to determine how much oil was involved and what area has been affected.

The leak was reported at the state-run oil refiner’s Tiejhen Mountain (鐵砧山) mine, which taps natural gas reserves, EPA Soil and Groundwater Remediation Fund Management Board section head Chen Yi-hsin (陳以新) said.

A pipe broke, leaking wastewater and some light fuel, Chen said.

Locals have reported smelling oil in groundwater since last month, but company personnel did not confirm the reports until greasy and pungent dirt was found in gutters outside the mine after heavy rain on Sunday, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday.    [FULL  STORY]

The Straits Times
Date: March 3, 2019
By: Timothy Goh, Ng Huiwen

SINGAPORE – A couple from Singapore are being investigated by Taiwanese authorities for allegedly dumping the body of a newborn baby girl in a recycling bin.

Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau is also reportedly seeking help from Singapore authorities on the matter, which Singapore police confirmed on Sunday afternoon (March 3).

Taiwanese media reported last Thursday that the baby girl’s body was found wrapped in a garbage bag early on Tuesday by an employee from a recycling company, who had been sorting through the trash.

The bag had been carried by a garbage truck travelling from Taipei to Xindian.    [FULL  STORY]

U.S. court rules Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association must restore Taiwan flag in its office

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/03/03
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A US district court of appeal in California has handed down a final ruling against the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) for its removal of the Taiwan flag from its office, because it violated the organization’s own rules, announced the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday (March 2).

On Feb. 25, the court ruled against an appeal of a previous ruling that the organization must restore the Taiwan flag in its office, because its prior decision to take it down in favor of the flag of Communist China did not meet the organization’s own rules. On March 1, the plaintiff, the Sue Hing Benevolent Association in San Francisco, held a press conference to announce its victory in the appeal court.

Yesterday, the OCAC expressed its gratitude to the Sue Hing Benevolent Association for its efforts over the years to maintain the “inherent historical status” of the Taiwan flag in the office of the CCBA. The council said that this also “affirmed the support of Overseas Compatriots for Taiwan.”

The OCAC pointed out that the campaign to remove the Taiwan flag was led by CCBA President Ted Win Wong on May 24, 2013. On that day, Wong called for a vote among the board of directors of CCBA on the removal of the Taiwan flag, resulting in a 21-20 decision to replace the Taiwan flag with the banner of Communist China.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/03/03
By: Yu Kai-hsiang and Emerson Lim

Taipei, March 3 (CNA) Taiwan was unable to attend a recent World Health Organization (WHO) meeting on flu vaccines because of political interference from China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Sunday, expressing dissatisfaction with the invitation process.

The ministry said Taiwan received a letter of invitation to the WHO consultation meeting on the Composition of Influenza Virus Vaccines at 1 a.m. on Feb. 20, the same day it was due to be held in Beijing.

Because the invitation arrived so late, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) could not send any representatives to Beijing for the meeting, MOFA said.

Through its representative office in Geneva, Taiwan has filed a protest with the WHO secretariat, MOFA said.    [FULL  STORY]

KEEPING PROMISES: The surfing center was part of the premier’s election platform more than a decade ago; part of the land required is marked for forest conservation

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 04, 2019
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

An international training base for surfers could be completed before October at Jhongjiao Bay (中角彎) in

New Taipei City’s Jinshan District (金山), Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.

Lin made the remarks before inspecting the bay with New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) and Cabinet officials.

Establishing a surfers’ training base in Jhongjiao Bay was among Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) campaign promises when he became commissioner of the former Taipei County, before it was renamed New Taipei City and became a special municipality.

Hou brought the plan up again at a Cabinet meeting on Jan. 17, after he took office on Dec. 25 last year.    [FULL  STORY]

The carcass, found on New Taipei’s Fulong Beach, is being tested for ASF

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/03/02
By: Duncan Deaeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Amid the continuing fear over a possible outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) virus reaching the shores of Taiwan, another dead pig, this time a piglet, was discovered on a New Taipei beach this morning.

Given the location of the dead piglet’s discovery near Dong Xing Temple (東興宮), on New Taipei’s Fulong Beach near the Yilan County line, authorities suspect the animal drifted from into shore from sea.

UDN reports that officers on shore patrol discovered the carcass around 11:00 a.m., and immediately contacted the New Taipei Animal Protection and Health Inspection Office, who sent employees to investigate the site and dispose of the piglet.

The site was quarantined while officers disinfected the corpse and surrounding shore. The pig will be tested for ASF with results expected by Monday, March 4.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/03/02
By: Miao Zong-han and Chung Yu-chen

Taipei, March 2 (CNA) A U.S. scholar warned of a possible cross-Taiwan Strait crisis around 2020 as he believes China’s pressure campaign against Taiwan could intensify in the lead-up to and immediately following Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election.

Michael S. Chase, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, made the comment in an article titled “Averting a Cross-Strait Crisis” published on the website of the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. think tank, on Feb. 26.

China responded to Tsai’s refusal to endorse its approach to the 1992 Consensus by implementing a multifaceted pressure campaign to punish and coerce Taiwan into being more compliant, he noted.

The “1992 consensus” refers to a tacit agreement reached in 1992 between the then Kuomintang (KMT) government of Taiwan and Chinese communist officials that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is only “one China.”    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 01 March, 2019
By: Paula Chao

A tulip show under way in Taipei has attracted 140,000 visitors since opening a week ago. The site of the tulip show is just one spot around Taipei where signs of spring are beginning to appear.

Spring has sprung around Taipei. Visitors to former President Chiang Kai-shek’s official residence in Shilin, Taipei this week have been able to enjoy the sight of tulips in full bloom.

A combination of tulips and decorative windmills at the show are meant to conjure up images of the Netherlands.

Thursday saw especially high turnout, encouraged by the start of a long weekend. Crowds came to the residence’s gardens to snap photos and take in the atmosphere.    [FULL  STORY]

ECONOMIC BOON: The ministry plans to open more routes for drone mail delivery, study its commercial viability and use it to deliver goods and medicine

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 02, 2019
By: Chen Yi-chia and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to expand a test program to deliver packages to

remote communities using uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV), ministry officials said.

The program’s initial test in October last year delivered a package from Tainan’s Zuojhen District (左鎮) to the office of National Development Council Minister Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) in Taipei in two days, Department of Post and Telecommunications officials said.

The improved speed and cost-effectiveness of drones in delivering mail and agricultural goods could be a boon to the economies of remote communities, they said.

The ministry’s plan for this year is to open more routes for drone mail delivery, study the commercial viability of using drones to move goods and use a fleet of drones for serum deliveries, they said.

The ministry early this month is to begin charting and drafting flight paths for mail delivery in Chiayi County’s Alishan (阿里山), they said.

The experiment in Zuojhen and Alishan is to determine whether agricultural produce — such as Alishan’s famed tea — could be transported by drones at a reasonable cost, Department Director Hsiao Chia-an (蕭家安) said.

“We need to learn from the experience of foreign countries before the program could be expanded into a regular service,” he said, adding that based on “the department’s initial assessment, the program is viable.”
[FULL  STORY]