Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/13
By: Yang Su-min and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Dec. 13 (CNA) Repeat offenders caught smuggling meat products into Taiwan from areas affected by African swine fever (ASF) will face a fine of up to NT$1 million (US$32,443) beginning Friday.

The increased fine follows a recent amendment passed by the Legislature, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) said Thursday.

With the passage of the amended Statute for Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Disease last month, people found smuggling meat or live animals for the first time face a fine of NT$50,000, while those caught offending a second time in three years will be fined NT$500,000 and third time offenders NT$1 million, according to the BAPHIO Director-General Feng Hai-tung (馮海東).

Under the new amendment, fines for meat or animal smuggling will increase from the previous NT$3,000-NT$15,000 to NT$10,000-NT$1 million, Feng noted.
[FULL  STORY]

THIRD TERMINAL:DPP  lawmakers said that Taoyuan International Airport Corp had received funding for consulting work from 2012 to 2015, but had spent it frivolously

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 14, 2018
By: Shelley Shan  /  Staff reporter

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said it is aiming to begin

construction of terminal 3 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in September next year and it would not remove the design for a cloud-shaped ceiling from the plan.

Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chi Wen-chung (祁文中), who is also acting chairman of Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC), made the statement at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which was reviewing the budget submitted by the airport company for the next fiscal year.

The ministry previously said it postponed completion of terminal 3 to the end of 2023 after the company twice failed to attract bidders through public-tender sessions.

The postponement has added NT$3.6 billion (US$116.7 million) to the construction budget, increasing it to NT$78.2 billion, the company said.    [FULL  STORY]

Two young Taiwanese designers plundered hardware stores to create contemporary homewares inspired by the predilection for grass-roots improvisation abundant in rural Taiwan.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/12/12
By: Kate Nicholson

Heading down the steps into the basement of an old secondhand bookstore in historic Tainan, visitors to Taiwanese designers Chen Liang-jung (陳亮融) and Yang Shuei-yuan (楊水源)’s exhibition, “The Misused”, are greeted with what appeared to be yet another showcase of sleek and sultry contemporary homewares.

But as visitors wandered around the space, looking closely at the exhibited objects and the accompanying concept drawings adorning the walls, they began to spot little touches of the familiar. Does that mirror have a plastic doorstop attached to the back of it? Is the top of that vase actually a drain cover? And that notebook… is it made of a steel BBQ grill?

Chen, originally from Tainan, and Chiayi-born Yang are former classmates who first met when they were studying industrial product design at Taipei’s Shih Chien University. Following graduation, Chen moved back to Tainan and began working as a design contractor for a number of traditional manufacturers in central and southern Taiwan who were looking to start their own brand. Yang stayed in Taipei, taking a position at Studio Kenyon Yeh. With their combined experience – Yang’s in producing concepts as an in-house designer and Chen’s in product fabrication in both Taiwan and China – they began to discuss ways they could collaborate.    [FULL  STORY]

A man growing and selling marijuana in Hsinchu told CIB investigators that the 30 year old officer in Taipei was his primary customer

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/12
By: Duncan Deaeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — On Dec. 11, officers with the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) raided the home of a man, surnamed Lin (林), in Hsinchu who was suspected of making and selling drugs.

The investigation found he was growing marijuana, and when interrogated by the CIB, Lin claimed that his primary customer was a 30 year old police officer working in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District, also surnamed Lin.

District Prosecutors in Taipei reportedly visited the precinct office in Taipei later the same day to find the officer and investigate the claim.

Apple Daily reports that officer Lin has reportedly been arrested, suspended from the force, and will be prosecuted according to the law, although the report does not specify what precise charges have been made against the officer.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/12
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, Dec. 12 (CNA) The head of the National Immigration Agency (NIA) has been

removed from his position over reported misappropriation of funds, the Ministry of the Interior said in a statement Wednesday.

Jeff Yang (楊家駿) was transferred to the position of senior councilor at the NIA because the alleged misconduct has damaged the image of the government and has left the public with a negative impression of public officials, according to the statement.

Deputy Interior Minister Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥) said Wednesday that Yang has been placed under investigation and any further adjustments to his position will be made depending on the result of the investigation.

According to a report by the Mirror Media, Yang was accompanied by his wife on two trips to southern Taiwan in October and November for business purposes, but the trips were primarily personal in nature, including eating and tourism.    [FULL  STORY]

NO REMORSE: Judicial officials yesterday said that a monitoring mechanism has been initiated to prevent Lu from fleeing, after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 13, 2018
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the conviction of event organizer Lu Chung-chi (呂

忠吉) and said he must serve a five-year sentence for his role in the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙樂園) water park inferno on June 27, 2015, in which 15 people died and 471 were injured.

At about 8pm during a “Color Play Asia” party, the powder being blown in the air caught fire and an explosion ensued, and hundreds of participants, mostly young people aged 18 to 25, sustained burns and other injuries.

The Taiwan High Court in May found Lu guilty of professional negligence causing deaths, which carries a maximum term of five years in prison.

The Supreme Court rejected his appeal for a more lenient sentence.

The High Court ruling also imposed a fine of NT$90,000 (US$2,914) on the 44-year-old Lu, who has to start serving time within a few days of receiving official notification of the Supreme Court ruling.
[FULL  STORY]

​​​​​​​Your daily bulletin of Taiwan news, courtesy of ICRT.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/12/11
By: International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT)

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will meet the mayors-elect of the country’s six special municipalities beginning this week, local media reported Monday.

Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said Tsai called the six mayors-elect Nov. 26 to congratulate them on their election victories.

The first meeting is scheduled to be with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), but Huang confirmed that since Tsai has stepped down as chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), she will confine discussions with Ko to municipal matters, and they will not discuss an upcoming by-election for the seat vacated by losing Taipei mayoral candidate Pasuya Yao (姚文智). It had been suggested in these pages that the DPP might seek to cooperate with Ko on promoting a candidate in order to avoid a potential split vote and consequent victory for the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) candidate.

According to Huang, the purpose of Tsai’s meetings with the mayors to be is to bring together the central and local governments to enhance public welfare and to ensure seamless central and local government cooperation on development projects.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwanese muscle-bound vlogger Holger Chen posts video about Lee Hsin’s death, only to take it down 2 hours later

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/12/11
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A popular, buff Taiwanese vlogger posted a controversial video yesterday about the death of late Kuomintang (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Lee Hsin (李新), only to take it down two hours later, leading many to speculate that he had been pressured into removing it, reported NOWnews.

Recently a film titled “Who Threw Lee Hsin to his Death?” (是誰摔死了李新) has aroused heated discussion on the internet as it implicates former Kuomintang Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) as being involved. Lo has expressed her dissatisfaction with being implicated in the film and argues that it has ruined her reputation and has filed a lawsuit.

Holger chen (陳之漢), a fitness gym owner, mixed martial artist, and commentator, also known as Kuan Chang (館長), shared the video on his Facebook page in Dec. 10, but inexplicably took it down two hours later, triggering heated debate.

Lee fell to his death on Sept. 28, 2017. At the time, his death was ruled a suicide as a neighbor had claimed seeing him leap from a rain shed on the 11th floor of his ex-wife’s apartment building.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/12/11
By: Chen Chih-chung and Christie Chen

Taipei, Dec. 11 (CNA) Taiwan has taken six gold medals at the 2018 International Junior

Science Olympiad (IJSO), leading the medal count among the 44 countries participating in the competition in Botswana.

The event, being held Dec.2-11 in the city of Gaborone, includes individual and team competitions for students 15 years old or younger, in the natural sciences — physics, chemistry and biology.

The six members of the Taiwan team each won a gold medal. One of the students, Chen Chien-yi (陳謙毅) from National Experimental High School at Hsinchu Science Park, also won the Olympiad’s best theoretical prize and placed second in the overall ranking.

Tseng Wei-fu (曾暐富) from Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School placed third overall.
[FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 12, 2018
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

More allegations have been brought against movie director Doze Niu (鈕承澤), who is

under investigation after being accused of sexual assault on a female staff member working on the set of his most recent film.

Niu, 52, has been accused of sexually assaulting the staffer at his residence late last month, when Niu invited a few friends for drinks.

The staffer said that afterward she told her roommate what had happened and they went to a police station to report the assault on the same night.

Niu has denied the accusation, saying he and the victim had been in a romantic relationship.

“I did everything that a man would do with his girlfriend in an intimate relationship,” Niu said, describing his interaction with the woman on the night of the alleged assault.    [FULL  STORY]