EARLY INCIDENT :A young woman in Kaohsiung was likely infected by a man living in the same borough who contracted the disease in Thailand, the CDC said

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 05, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan, Ou Su-mei and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporters, with staff writer

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday confirmed the first case of indigenous

dengue fever in the nation — a young woman in Kaohsiung who was likely infected by a person who contracted the disease in Thailand.

The 20-something woman visited a doctor on Friday after developing symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, and tested positive for the dengue virus, the CDC said in a press release.

She is now in hospital under quarantine, and her house in Singbang Borough (興邦) in the city’s Cianjhen District (前鎮) has been disinfected, it said.

As the woman had not gone abroad recently and people she has had frequent contact with have not exhibited similar symptoms, the CDC said she was likely infected by a man living 143m away in the same borough.    [FULL  STORY]

Agence France-Presse
Date: February 03, 2019

Every year is the Year of the Pig in Jenny Tsai’s ninth-floor apartment in Taiwan’s Taichung City which she shares with one fellow human and four pampered porcine housemates.

Website designer Tsai says her pigs are so clever they’ve worked out how to open the fridge, which is now protected from wandering snouts with a rope.

“Pigs are very affectionate,” she says. “When I am sick they stay by my side and keep me company. But you can’t pretend to be sick or they’ll find out and wreak havoc.”

It is difficult to underestimate the importance of pigs in Chinese culture, especially when it comes to food.

One of Taiwan’s most prized treasures is the “meat-shaped stone”, a small piece of carved jasper with an uncanny resemblance to a chunk of stewed pork belly that draws huge daily crowds at the island’s national museum.    [FULL  STORY]

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs annoucned on Sunday that the forum will be held in March in collaboration with the United States

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/03
By:  Central News Agency

TAIPEI (CNA) — Taiwan is set to host an Indo-Pacific forum on religious freedom in March, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Sunday.

Working in collaboration with the United States, Taiwan will host the forum that is aimed at promoting religious freedom, human rights and democracy in the region, MOFA said in a statement.

The idea for an Indo-Pacific forum on religious freedom was first conceived when Taiwan’s representative to the U.S. Stanley Kao (高碩泰) last July attended the first Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in Washington, which convened leaders from around the world to discuss the challenges facing religious freedom and promote greater respect for religious liberty for all, the ministry said.

At the meeting, Kao engaged in talks with several U.S. officials and representatives from various religious groups on the issues and said Taiwan would welcome the opportunity to host a similar meeting in first half of 2019, according to Vincent Yao (姚金祥), head of MOFA’s Department of North American Affairs.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/03
By: Huang Li-yun, Wang Cheng-chung, Hao Hsueh-ching and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Feb. 3 (CNA) The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) said Sunday it is considering a law amendment that would allow charges of voluntary manslaughter in drunk driving cases that result in death, following two road fatalities the previous day.

In a statement, the MOI said it will hold discussions on the issue with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Ministry of the Interior.

The discussions will not only focus on whether to charge drunk drivers with voluntary manslaughter in cases of death, but will also examine the possibility of imposing prison sentences against repeat offenders in cases of driving while intoxicated (DWI), the MOI said.

The statement was issued one day after an accident in Taichung City, in which two motorcyclists were killed when they were hit by an SUV driven by a man who allegedly was drunk.    [FULL  STORY]

QUARANTINE: Two packages found in the amnesty bins at Songshan airport last month contained the African swine fever virus, while two Chinese visitors were barred

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 04, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

Two Chinese pork jerky products seized at customs have tested positive for African swine

fever, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday.

Tests found the two products collected from the quarantine amnesty bins at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) on Jan. 23 and 24 — one from Jiangsu Province and the other without a label indicating origin — had strains of the virus identical to those found in China, the council said.

The results brought the number of confiscated pork products testing positive for the disease to 20, council data showed.

Two more Chinese visitors on Saturday were denied entry into the country after failing to pay a NT$200,000 (US$6,505) fine for the illegal import of pork products, bringing the total of barred visitors since the regulation took effect on Jan. 25 to six, all Chinese, council data showed.    [FULL  STORY]

However, the temperature can drop to around 19 degrees at night in the west on Sunday

Taiwan News
Date: 2019/02/02
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Temperatures will rise to around 30 degrees Celsius across Taiwan on Saturday, Feb. 3, with weather conditions forecast as cloudy to sunny, Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said Tuesday.

Temperatures across Taiwan reached above 23 and 24 degree on Saturday, but on Sunday, mercury will rise again, with 30 degrees forecast for central and southern Taiwan, and nearly 30 degrees for northern and eastern Taiwan. However, the temperature can drop to around 19 degrees at night in the west, the CWB said, warning the public that the temperature difference between day and night is as much as 10 degrees.

However, on Feb. 4, the Lunar New Year (LNY) Eve, and Feb. 5, the LNY Day, a cold front will pass through Taiwan, and northeasterly winds are expected to pick up, sending temperatures lower in the north and northeast and bringing short rains to the two regions as well as occasional showers to other regions, the CWB said.

On Feb. 6, northeasterly winds will decrease and temperatures are expected to rise again, according to the bureau. The weather forecast for most Taiwan is cloudy to sunny from Feb. 6 to Feb. 8, with the only exception being the northeast, where occasional showers are expected.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/02/02
By: Miao Zong-han and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Feb. 2 (CNA) Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜), wife of Taiwanese democracy advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲), will visit the United States on Sunday to raise government awareness of the situation regarding her husband’s imprisonment in China, according to a Taiwanese NGO that is helping to organize her trip.

During the one-week visit, Lee Ching-yu will make appeals to the U.S. Congress and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), an independent agency of the U.S. government that monitors human rights and rule of law developments in China, the Taiwan Association for China Human Rights (TACHR) said.

The U.S. Congress and the CECC have both been following Lee Ming-che’s case closely and have already had meetings with his wife through representatives who have visited in Taiwan over the past year, according to the TACHR.

In 2017, Lee Ching-yu made a similar trip to the U.S. and met with Matthew Pottinger, the senior director for Asian affairs at the U.S. National Security Council.    [FULL  STORY]

CLEVER PORKERS: Pet pig owner Anita Chen said that her animals have the intelligence of a five-year-old and can open everything from fridges to doors and drawers

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 03, 2019
By: Fabian Hamacher  /  Reuters, TAIPEI

With the Year of the Pig starting on Tuesday, pig lovers fear that a rush of people wanting

to usher good fortune into their homes by getting a piglet as a pet could lead to a wave of abandoned animals.

Anita Chen, who runs a social media forum for owners of pet pig and has two pigs at her home in Taipei, said that the first thing owners have to consider is their freedom and flexibility.

Pigs like her Xin Xin and Mei Mei have the intelligence of a five-year-old child and can open everything from fridges to doors and drawers, often removing everything inside, to the horror of their homecoming owners, Chen said.

“Piglets are very attached to people, they will constantly squeak to make you play with them or feed them,” she said, adding that many overwhelmed owners abandon piglets after just a few months.    [FULL  STORY]

As Taiwan heads into its Chinese New Year break, its leader has much to ponder.

The News Lens
Date: 2019/02/01
By Mark Weatherall and Huang Kai-ping, Taiwan Insight

For President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the shock win of the Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) in the mayoral election for Kaohsiung, a traditional stronghold of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), symbolized a disastrous night for the party and the president personally. The surprising success of Han Kuo-yu and other KMT candidates around the country can be partly attributed to the effective campaign tactics of KMT candidates, including a relentless focus on issues such as the economy and air pollution that impact ordinary people’s everyday lives. More fundamentally, they were an expression of widespread popular dissolution with the performance of Tsai’s government.

In fact, many of the domestic troubles faced by Tsai are little different from those faced by the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration. The structural issues facing the economy, including low wages, rising inequality, high property prices, and uneven development have been decades in the making. Policy mishaps in the face of public backlashes has been a constant feature of both the Ma and Tsai administrations. Ma’s popularity never recovered from rises in fuel and electricity prices. Tsai’s popularity plummeted only after 100 days in the position due to labor policy reform.

While policies had been justified for improving the overall welfare, lack of comprehensive and thoughtful policymaking has been a constant criticism faced by both governments. As a result, policy proposals have emerged only to be abandoned a few days later in the face of criticism in the media and complaints from the public. The most recent example included reports that the government was considering a rebate for low-income earners after tax revenues exceeded government predictions, only to be denied by the government a few days later.    [FULL  STORY]