The China Post
Date: November 12, 2016
By: Tammy Liu

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Ching-An Temple in Keelung yesterday began its pilgrimage exchange with

other Matsu Temples in Northern Taiwan, launching the year-end Dharma Assembly (謝平安法會).

These events are held to show appreciation to Matsu (媽祖), a goddess known for protecting fishermen and those at sea.

Ching-An Temple (慶安宮), commonly known as Keelung Matsu Temple, was established in 1779. As it is the only sacrificial place to worship Matsu in Taiwan, it has become one of the most important religious centers in the country.

The goddess is revered by sailors across China and Taiwan. Taiwanese marine engineer Shen Jui-chang (沈瑞章), who was held by the Somalian pirates for almost five years, attributed his recent safe return in part to the blessings of Matsu.

Shen’s wife Yang Hsiu-huei (楊秀慧) also said the oracle at Ching-An Temple who prayed for her husband’s return had relieved her of great hardship and suffering during her husband’s time in captivity.    [FULL  STORY]

Five of Russia’s largest banks began were deluged by a massive DDoS attack and Taiwan was among the top sources

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/11/11
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

At least five of Russia’s largest banks were hit by a massive cyber attack that began on Tuesday, and

Taiwan was one of four countries that accounted for more than half of the attacks, according to the Moscow-based internet security giant Kaspersky.

The distribution of denial attacks (DDoS) began Tuesday at 1300 GMT and targeted “the websites of at least five well-known financial institutions in the top 10” in Russia, according to a statement released by Kaspersky. These attacks were still ongoing as of Thursday, with most lasting around an hour, but the longest continuing for up to 12 hours, according to Kaspersky.

DDoS attacks involve flooding websites with traffic from multiple sources, thus making them difficult to access or taking them offline entirely.

One of the affected banks, Sberbank, released a statement regarding the attack:    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/11
By: Wen Kuei-hsiang, Sophia Yeh and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Nov. 11 (CNA) Opposition People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), who will represent Taiwan at next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ meeting in Peru, said Friday that he will interact naturally with China’s leader at the event.

Soong stressed, however, that he has not been authorized by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to discuss any major cross-Taiwan Strait political issues with the Chinese side.

He was responding to questions at a news conference on whether Tsai has authorized him to discuss cross-strait issues with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and whether he will meet with anybody from the team of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump during his transit stop in New York.

Soong said there was no need to arrange any such meetings in New York because he does not hold any public office and cannot speak on behalf of the government on any major policies.    [FULL  STORY]

BACKROOM DEALS:Legislator May Chin said that she suspects the government made a secret deal over imports from Japanese prefectures affected by radiation

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 12, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday accused the government of rushing through a

decision to lift a ban on imports of food products from five Japanese prefectures affected by the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster.
The Executive Yuan on Thursday evening announced that 10 public hearings are to held nationwide from today to Monday on the issue.

Academics, professionals, civic groups and members of the public have been invited to participate to exchange views on the import of food products from Japan’s Fukushima, Tochigi, Gunma, Chiba and Ibaraki prefectures.

The KMT caucus, accompanied by Non-Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator May Chin (高金素梅), said that the that the government is “rushing through the hearings, which the public has demanded, just for the sake of holding public hearings.”    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: November 10, 2016

Public satisfaction in Taiwan’s National Health Insurance system hit 83.1 percent this year, up from 81

percent in 2015 for the second best result since its launch in 1995, according to the latest survey released Nov. 8 by the NHI Administration under the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

A total of 85 percent of respondents were satisfied with medical services provided at NHI-authorized facilities, with 49.6 percent of these pleased with the good standard of service and attitude of the health care professionals. In addition, the majority was satisfied with the system’s key categories of inexpensive medical care, 49 percent, and ease of access to treatment, 41.8 percent, both unchanged from last year’s survey.

Significant improvements were recorded among low-income households, residents in remote areas, users aged 50 and above and women. According to the NHIA, this trend reflects well on the system’s scope of coverage and range of benefits for disadvantaged groups.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/11/10
By: Chen Wei-ting and Lilian Wu

Taipei, Nov. 10 (CNA) Eight Taiwanese tourists were injured, including three seriously, in a traffic

accident in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Thursday, a local travel agency said.

The injured are being treated at a Phnom Penh hospital.

Lion Travel said the bus carrying the 11-member Taiwan tour group was traveling from Angkor Wat to Phnom Penh when the accident took place at 11:30 a.m.

The bus skidded and overturned after trying to avoid a motorcyclist who was apparently driving the wrong way.

The injured included the tour group leader, surnamed Wang, who suffered minor bruises.    [FULL  STORY]

The Wild Strawberry movement was considered the third largest student movement in Taiwan since the Wild Lily movement.

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/11/10
By: Wendy Lee , Taiwan News, Staff Writer

In November, 2008, when Beijing sent Chen Yun-lin, the chairman of China’s Association for Relations

across the Taiwan Strait to Taiwan for negotiations, a protest broke out in the nation over the then President Ma Ying-jeou’s pro-China policy.

Opposing Ma administration’s rapprochement with China, hundreds of students, scholars and intellectuals joined in on the demonstration in front of the Executive Yuan.

Starting out dogging Chen’s movement, the demonstration soon turned into a sit-in protesting police and executive misuse of power during Chen’s visit, and calling for government’s immediate response to the Big Three Demands: A public apology from President Ma and Premier Liu Chao-shiun; resignations of the directors of the police and national security agencies; review and amend the Assembly and Parade Law.

Meant to overturn people’s stereotype on the young generation as “strawberry generation” (self-involved, disengaged from politics, and cannot perform well under pressure due to over-protection by their parents’ generation), the movement highlighted the generational differences in terms of political preferences, especially their worries about engaging China economically.    [FULL  STORY]

TRANSPARENT:Judicial bodies need to work together more closely and improve communication in order to meet the expectations of society, the justice minister said

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 11, 2016
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) yesterday announced a series of major reform initiatives to

improve protections for plaintiffs and defendants in contentious cases. Chiu and Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Ming-tang (陳明堂) yesterday morning discussed the initiatives and how the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and the Judicial Yuan could collaborate on a series of judicial reform programs.

The minister said he met with Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) and Vice President Tsai Chiung-tun (蔡炯燉), and received a positive response on working together to promote transparency. They agreed to set up regular communications between the two bodies.

“We know people are concerned about this issue. People have demanded openness in a system from which they feel excluded. There have been controversial court decisions and people feel disaffected by the justice system. Therefore, judicial reform shall be pragmatic, while changes and improvements should affect people’s lives in real ways,” Chiu said.

Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Prosecutor-General Yen Ta-ho (顏大和) and Chiu presented a number of initiatives which had already been agreed upon by other judicial bodies that are to be implemented to launch the upcoming national affairs conference on judicial reform.    [FULL  STORY]