The China Post
Date: June 25, 2016
By: Enru Lin

TAIPEI, Taiwan — What’s baby saying? A team in Taiwan made an app to tell parents if

their baby is hungry, tired, in pain or needs a fresh diaper.

Over three years, researchers collected about 300,000 sounds from 100 newborn babies at National Taiwan University Hospital’s branch in Yunlin County.

They made a smartphone app called Infant Crying Translator, a cloud-based program that can decode the crying of babies from the moment they’re born until they are six months old.

It takes only 15 seconds. Tap “record” in the app and a clip of the infant’s cry is uploaded to a cloud database. The file is quickly compared to an audio library and a verdict pops up onscreen.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan is redoubling efforts to halt the spread of dengue fever, which has hit the southern part of the island hard over the past two years.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/06/23
By: Jules Quartly

Growing global concern about the Zika virus has led to intensified efforts to combat the white-

speckled Aedes aegypti mosquito that also transmits dengue fever, a disease that has ravaged southern Taiwan in recent years.

Despite having been around for decades, Zika previously aroused little attention because its symptoms were considered relatively mild. But that situation changed dramatically in October last year when it was discovered that Zika was to blame for microcephaly (unusually small heads and damaged brains) in the children of infected pregnant women. The World Health Organization (WHO) is now describing Zika as an international public health emergency.

But while the headlines these days are mainly about Zika, dengue is becoming an ever more present menace around the world, particularly in Asia and increasingly in Taiwan. “People tend to ignore epidemic threats until they perceive a potential direct impact on themselves,” comments Jonathan Schwartz, director of the Asian Studies Program at the State University of New York at New Paltz, whose research specialty is government responses to epidemics. “Zika is frightening a lot of people, and as a result they are pressuring governments to address the threat. Since there are notable similarities between Zika and dengue in terms of how they spread and how they can be controlled, this is having a positive impact on addressing the dengue threat as well.”     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-06-23
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The best way to avoid the summer heat is to go swimming, and the best place to go in Kaohsiung City is the Cijin Beach, where there are sand sculptures, concerts, beach volleyball, night running and other activities during the Cijin black sand festival from July 2 to September 4, said Tourism Bureau of Kaohsiung City Government on Thursday.

The bureau announced the festival on Thursday and invited all people to come to Cijin to swim, eat seafood, enjoy the sand sculptures, and participate in night running.

Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau Director Tseng Tzu-wen said the Cijin Beach had undergone crises of beach disappearance, but after the city government’s beach nourishment project, the beach has been restored to its original shape, and safety of swimming at the beach is also enhanced.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/23
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Y.F. Low

Taipei, June 23 (CNA) More than 56 percent of people in Taiwan think that the new administration led by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Lin Chuan (林全) has the ability to solve problems, according to a survey released by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation on Thursday.

The survey revealed that 67 percent of people are in favor of the way Tsai is dealing with national affairs, including her choice of top personnel and policies.

Meanwhile, 54 percent of people believe Taiwan should actively seek to join the United Nations to lift Taiwan’s international status and dignity.

On the question of what name the country should use to participate in international organizations, 53.4 percent of the respondents said “Taiwan,” 31 percent chose “Republic of China” and 8.7 percent picked “Chinese Taipei.”     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: June 24, 2016
By: Joseph Yeh

TAIPEI, Taiwan — President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday called on newly-promoted generals to

recall their younger years when they were closer to the grassroots troops so that they will be more willing to push for military reforms.

Speaking during a conferral ceremony held in Taipei, her first such act since becoming commander-in-chief on May 20, the president congratulated 37 senior military personnel that are being promoted to general posts, saying that their higher ranking means they must shoulder greater responsibility.

Tsai pointed out that the R.O.C. armed forces are now facing challenges ahead.

Over the years, Taiwan’s military has launched various reforms, but there is still much room for improvement, she noted.

“I hope all of you will have a more innovative mindset and be open to criticism so that the military can regain the dignity it deserves,” she added.      [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2016/06/22
By: Olivia Yang

Every year, Taiwanese use a total of more that 20 billion plastic bags, nearly four times the

quantity in the entire European Union.

Polish exchange student Piotr Kurczewski has launched an online petition calling for a ban on free plastic bags in Taiwan.
In Taiwan for four years, Kurczewski fell in love with the beauty and friendliness of the island, but noticed the serious pollution caused by plastic bags.

In the description of the petition Free Taiwan From Free Plastic Bags, Kurczewski points out that many of the plastic bags given out are only used once before being disposed. He also acknowledges how using plastic bags has become a habit for the Taiwanese, who most of the time “do not hesitate to ask for a plastic bag to carry food, drinks, or other products.”

The Polish PhD student is calling on President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to implement a NT$5 fee on all plastic and paper carry-out bags. So far the petition has garnered more than 5,000 signatures since it was started.   [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/22
By: Claudia Liu and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, June 22 (CNA) Taiwan is suffering from an increasingly aging population, with the Aging Index reaching 92.18 in 2015 and expected to surge to 100 next year at the earliest, according to Ministry of the Interior (MOI) data released Wednesday.

The 92.18 figure represents growth of 6.48 compared with 2014, the MOI said, noting that it was lower than Japan’s 200, Germany’s 161.54 and South Korea’s 92.86, but higher than 78.95 in the United States and Australia, and 58.82 in China.

The aging index refers to the ratio of the number of elderly persons of an age when they are generally economically inactive (aged 65 and over) to the number of young persons (from 0 to 14) in every 100 people.

MOI Vice Minister Hua Ching-chun (花敬群) said Taiwan’s aging index could possibly surpass the 100 mark within the next two years, given that the index has been growing 6 percent to 7 percent each year.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: June 23, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Indigenous peoples have protested that their rights are being ignored in a

transitional justice bill that the ruling party has launched.

Legislator Kao-Chin Su-mei, representing the indigenous constituencies, walked out on a legislative committee meeting Wednesday in protest of the transitional justice bill that the Democratic Progressive Party is keen to pass.

Kao-Chin, who belongs to one of the aboriginal tribes, was not alone in demanding the DPP revise the bill to cover indigenous peoples’ rights.

Some of her colleagues from the DPP, the New Power Party (NPP), and the Kuomintang also questioned the bill.

But DPP Legislator Tuan Yi-kang, who chaired the committee meeting where the bill was discussed, denied that his party was ignoring indigenous peoples’ rights.     [FULL  STORY]