Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2018-05-28

President Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan’s government has placed an emphasis on serving

veterans. She was speaking on Monday while meeting with the head of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (VFW).

The VFW is the largest and oldest war veterans service organizations in the United States. During his trip, the VFW’s Commander-in-Chief Keith Harman will visit the Taipei Veterans General Hospital.

Tsai said the top-notch medical care that veterans receive at the hospital has also served as a model for Taiwan’s long-term care program.    [FULL  STORY]

Tainted groundwater, dirty air, unsafe herbs create higher risk for bladder cancer in southern Taiwan

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/05/28
By: Renée Salmonsen, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Over three times as many cases of bladder cancer are diagnosed every year in southern Taiwan than the rest of the island, and doctors speculate the trend can be explained by three dangerous factors: herbs, water, and air.

Doctors suggest that people in southern Taiwan; over-ingest aristolochic acid, an acid found in Chinese medicine; deal with higher levels of arsenic found in ground water; and suffer from more air pollution, at much higher levels than other regions in Taiwan, according to CNA.

Data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare states that on average 3,709 cases of urinary-related cancers are diagnosed a year in Taiwan, including kidney cancer, ureteral cancer, urothelial cancer, and bladder cancer. Bladder cancer accounts for 60 percent of those cases and is predominately found in men.

On average in the remainder of Taiwan, 6.9 people out of 10,000 will be diagnosed with urinary cancer but in southern Taiwan the odds increase to 27.3 people out of 10,000.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/05/28
By: Shih Hsiu-chuan

Taipei, May 28 (CNA) In the fight against the growing influence of authoritarian powers,

Taiwan is a frontline state with experience in resisting China’s attempts to erode its democracy and defending fundamental democratic values, Deputy Foreign Minister Francois Wu (吳志中) said Monday.

With considerable experience in confronting China, “Taiwan is a unique and vital asset to the international community,” Wu said in his opening remarks at the symposium “Defending Democracy: Combating Authoritarian Regimes” organized by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD).

Emboldened by its rapid economic development, China has used various tactics to expand its influence in Taiwan and elsewhere, including misinformation, cyberattacks, bribery, economic coercion, technology theft, and interference in international politics, Wu said.    [FULL  STORY]

LEGISLATIVE CRITICISM: Lawmakers asked if it might be better to give the money to another global group, or used at home, and questioned the solidity of ties with allies

Taipei Times
Date: May 29, 2018
By: Ann Maxon  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan is still talking with the WHO about donating US$1 million to help fight Ebola,

Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) told lawmakers yesterday.

The legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee met to review Ministry of Foreign Affairs efforts and government policy in the wake of the loss of two diplomatic allies, the Dominican Republic and Burkina Faso.

Asked by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) about the government’s offer to donate US$1 million to the fight against Ebola, Wu said officials are still communicating with the WHO and are not sure if the donation would be accepted.

“Taiwan donated US$1 million to the WHO in 2014, which initially refused [the money], but later accepted it because it was donated through the US’ CDC Foundation,” he said.
[FULL  STORY]

Clean Technica
Date: May 27th, 2018 
By: Joshua S Hill 

One of the most important renewable energy sectors, as we move forward and continue to shift away from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, is the offshore wind industry, which boasts high-yield renewable energy generation done at increasingly lower costs, and done so safely away from the majority of witnesses.

It is the perfect clean energy technology.

The offshore wind industry has, for the most part, been centred firmly in Western Europe. As of the end of 2017, the United Kingdom led the way with a total of 6,386 megawatts (MW) worth of offshore wind power installed, followed by Germany which boasted 5,355 MW. Denmark and the Netherlands each boasts over 1 gigawatt (GW) worth of offshore wind, and Belgium is not far off that marker either

Unsurprisingly, China is the regional ‘odd one out’ with 2,788 MW worth of offshore wind installed at the end of 2017, taking third place and the only non-European country to have over 100 MW worth of offshore wind.

That, however, may soon quickly change.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan vocalizes its frustration at China’s ongoing efforts to throttle its international agency.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/05/27
By: David Green

Taiwan’s Ministry of Affairs (MoFA) issued a statement early Sunday expressing its disappointment at the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Burkina Faso, just two days after the African nation severed links with Taipei.

“The government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) expresses profound disappointment, regret, and outrage that the government of Burkina Faso has succumbed to the enticements of dollar diplomacy, signing a joint communique in Beijing,” the MoFA statement said, adding that the decision disregards the contribution Taiwan has made to the country’s economic and social development over the 24 years that they maintained relations.

China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi and his counterpart from Burkina Faso, Alpha Barry, signed a joint communique establishing diplomatic relations between their two countries on Saturday, according to a statement on China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. The communique said that Burkina Faso agrees to recognize the “one China” principle, and that Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory.

Taiwan’s MoFA said that “Taiwan is an independent, sovereign state, a fact which the ‘one China principle’ cannot negate unilaterally,” adding that it will continue to strengthen relations with Taiwan’s remaining 18 diplomatic allies, and ward off attempts by China to further weaken its ability to maneuver on the international stage.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2018/05/27
By:  Central News Agency

Taipei, May 27 (CNA) A 67-year old man in Taoyuan confessed Sunday that he had

stabbed his wife to death and beheaded and disemboweled her after she asked for a divorce, according to police.

The man, identified only by the surnamed Chen, was arrested Saturday evening after his daughter found the head and body parts of his wife in two plastic bags in his bedroom, Taoyuan police said.

At the time of the arrest, Chen was too drunk to give a proper statement but he confessed early Sunday during interrogation that he had committed the brutal murder, police said.

According to Chen’s statement, his 68-year-old wife had recently asked for a divorce, which would have resulted in their third legal separation in four decades, and they were having a disagreement over division of property, police said.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/05/27
By: Wu Hsin-yun and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, May 27 (CNA) More than 6,500 metric tons of perishable food was thrown

away over the past year by major fresh food retailers in Taiwan, according to data released recently by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).

The EPA said the figure has risen significantly since it first introduced a regulation that requires hypermarkets and supermarkets with paid-in capital of more than NT$25 million (US$850,000) to report their flow of food waste.

Since the regulation was implemented in March 2017 to prevent unscrupulous businesses from selling expired or waste food, the total amount of discarded perishable food reported has been 6,630.4 metric tons, the EPA said, citing a data valid as of the end of April.

In the first two months after the regulation took effect, the 1,273 retailers that it covers reported only about 100-200 tons of discarded food per month but that figure soon increased to over 400 metric tons per month, the EPA said.
[FULL  STORY]

Play Station Lifestyle 
Date; May 26, 2018
By: Zarmena Khan

Taiwan’s video game rating board has published listings for Crytek’s free-to-play first-person shooter, Warface, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

As spotted by Wccftech, the listings are still up on the board’s website but Crytek hasn’t made any official announcement yet.

Warface, which is brought to us by Far Cry and Crysis developers, first released in 2013 for PC and was later ported over to Xbox 360. However, the last-gen console servers have since been shut down. An official description of the title is as follows:

The world is struggling to recover from an unheard of recession level while powerful individuals own the majority of the world’s wealth. Those in power have begun asserting their will and protecting their money by means of a military force known as Blackwood.    [FULL  STORY]