The China Post
Date: September 4, 2017
By: The China Post

TAIPEI – A bullet train left the platform without its conductor Monday after a system

error shut the door on him. According to the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation, the northbound train suffered a door malfunction after it stopped at the Banqiao station. The conductor, who was on the platform serving as per standard operating procedure, was not able to enter the train.

The company said it was the first incident of its kind in THSR’s history and that it would draft improvement measure to prevent similar malfunctions.

The company also denied reports that the door malfunction took place at the carriage used recently in the shooting of promotional footage for a supernatural horror film.
[FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/03
By: Chen Wei-ting and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Sept. 3 (CNA) Some 6.5 percent of the respondents to this year’s annual mental health and suicide prevention and awareness survey by the Taiwan Suicide Prevention Center (TSPC) were found to have emotional issues and to be in need of assistance.

If calculated based on Taiwan’s total population of 23.55 million, the percentage means that 1.53 million people are emotionally disturbed and need help, said TSPC Director Lee Ming-been (李明濱) Sunday at a press conference held to mark World Suicide Prevention Day, observed on Sept. 10 every year.

The figures were reached via the TSPC telephone survey among people aged over 15 nationwide, which received a total of 2,098 valid responses.    [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 04, 2017
By: Chen Yu-fu / Staff reporter

Retired soldiers yesterday marked Armed Forces Day with nationwide protests against

the government’s pension reform, as they commemorated soldiers who sacrificed their lives.

In Taipei, protesters congregated in the Taipei Main Station atrium.

Led by retired army general Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), they came from veterans associations of different military branches and were joined by former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), as well as officers from the KMT’s special Huang Fu-hsing branch, whose members are military veterans or their family members.

The protesters began by singing the Republic of China (ROC) national anthem and some pricked their finger with a needle to dab blood on an ROC flag as a gesture of determination in their fight against pension reform.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/09/03
By: Ku Chuan and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Sept. 3 (CNA) The government is planning to renew bilateral investment

agreements (BIA) with six Southeast Asian countries as part of its push for its New Southbound Policy, Minister without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中) said Sunday.

A BIA between Taiwan and the Philippines is expected to be renewed by the end of this year, according to Deng, who is also chief representative of the Office of Trade Negotiations under the Executive Yuan.

Deng said that Taiwan has established BIAs with eight of the 18 countries targeted by the policy, which is aimed at forging closer economic ties with the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), countries in South Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand.    [FULL  STORY]

Data show though the suicide death rate in Taiwan has generally decreased since 2007, it has slightly risen in the past three years, especially among young people.  

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/09/03
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The latest survey shows that in Taiwan, there are about 1.53

million people suffering from emotional problems and among them, more than 40 percent have had a suicidal idea, said Lee Ming-been (李明濱), chief leader at Taiwan Suicide Prevention Center (TSPC), Sunday.

The TSPC conducted a telephone survey this year with 2,098 people aged over 15 in the country and discovered that 6.7 percent of people had had a suicidal idea in the past year, which is the lowest figure over the last few years.

However, Lee said that through the 5-item Brief Symptom Rating Scale (BSRS-5), a list of questions commonly used in Taiwan for examining individual’s mental health, they estimated that roughly 1.53 million people are having emotional problems, and among them, more than 40 percent “have seriously thought about committing suicide.”
Lee said in a speech that though the suicide death rate in Taiwan had generally decreased since 2007, it had slightly risen in the past three years.
[FULL  STORY]

In the era of digital publishing, physical book fairs remain popular in Taipei.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/09/02

In the Internet era, book publishers are feeling pressure in sales due to cheap online books and e-books. But the charm of book fairs remain in the few corners of Taipei — perhaps it is the opportunity to interact directly with authors or the atmosphere itself — and continues to attract book readers to leave behind their computers and enter the world of paper and ink. “Good Eye Taipei,” a new bilingual Taipei city guide, recommends four book fairs worth visiting.    [FULL  STORY]

The local agricultural cooperative said the harvest of Madou’s pomelo, the must-eat fruit at the Moon Festival, this year was good and with high quality.

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/09/02
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Every year before the Moon Festival comes the pomelo

harvest. Tainan’s Madou District, which is famous for producing the fruit, kicked off a pomelo festival on Saturday, with the district’s Zhongxiao Street sealed off from vehicles for 200 meters for shoppers to buy pomelo directly from farmers or farmers’ associations.

Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) opened the festival. He also auctioned three boxes of pomelos, raising NT$180,000 (nearly USD$5,000) for the Madou District Office as emergency funds.

Pomelo is a must-eat snack during the Moon Festival along with moon cakes. The pomelo production reaches its peak in September before the festival, and the fruit has symbolic meaning for the festival.    [FULL  STORY]