Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-16
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – OBI Pharma Inc. Chairman Michael Chang was freed on bail of NT$1 million (US$30,900) in the investigation into insider trading with his company’s shares, reports said Saturday.

The allegations have also implicated the nation’s top academic body, the Academia Sinica, because its president, Wong Chi-huey, was accused of having sold shares in OBI Pharma he had given to his daughter.

Wong has staunchly denied any involvement, including during a meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou Friday. He is also likely to face questioning by lawmakers as early as Monday.

While Wong was meeting with Ma, the Shilin District Prosecutors Office in Taipei City was questioning Chang and eight other suspects and witnesses, while teams of investigators raided seven locations, including OBI Pharma      [FULL  STORY]headquarters.

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/16
By Huang Li-yun, Wang Hung-kuo, Bien Chen-feng, Wang Chao-yu, Sophia Yeh, Chang Che-fon and Y.F. Low

Taipei, April 16 (CNA) In response to the strong earthquakes that struck Japan over the past two days, search and rescue teams around Taiwan were on standby Saturday to provide assistance if needed.

The Taipei City Fire Department said the city’s search and rescue team has completed the related preparation and can depart for Japan at any time.

In a Facebook post, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said Taiwan has maintained a very close friendship with Japan, and the people of Japan have provided Taiwan with the greatest assistance during disasters in the past.

He said Taipei is eager to help in this time of need and he also urged people to pray for Japan.

New Taipei’s Fire Department, meanwhile, said it has mobilized a 30-member search and rescue team for the mission.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taipei
Date: 2016/04/15
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Brook Hsiao

Taipei, April 15 (CNA) Taipei has begun working with four major supermarkets and retailers in the city this year to promote dual-use eco-friendly bags that it hopes will help reduce waste, the city government said Friday.

The city said it is cooperating with PXMart, Carrefour Taiwan, RT-Mart and A.mart to distribute the 14-liter eco-friendly bags that can be used as both shopping bags and garbage bags.

Taipei is expecting the supermarkets and big-box retailers, which come in direct contact with consumers, to be on the front line of promoting the environmentally friendly policy, the city said.
(Courtesy of of the Taipei City Department of Environmental Protection; click to see an enlarged version.)

Supermarket PXMart said it has encouraged consumers to prepare their own bags when shopping at its stores, but it has also picked up 100,000 two-way bags from the city government this year to make them available for consumers to meet their temporary needs.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-04-14
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Pingtung Forest District Office said on Thursday that a large-scale ecological investigation on the Great Ghost Lake, located on the border of Taitung County and Pingtung County, had just been completed.

The Great Ghost Lake, which is regarded by the Lukai tribe as a sacred place, is the deepest natural high mountain lake in Taiwan, and difficult to reach due to the dangerous terrain.

The area where the Great Ghost Lake and the Little Ghost Lake are situated has great biological diversity and has been proclaimed as an important resting environment for wild animals.

Forests are diverse and plants well grown in this area as high elevation and diverse climate have combined to create favorable growing environments for different plants. Remarkably, the area has a well-kept primitive forest of East Asia’s tallest tree—Taiwania cryptomerioides.

The office said the Great Ghost Lake, located 2,180 meters above sea level, has an area of 39 hectares and consists of three lakes of different sizes. The main lake, about 250 meters wide and 650 meters long with depth being estimated at between 34 meters to 40 meters, is the deepest high mountain lake in Taiwan.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/14
By: Yang Shu-min and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, April 14 (CNA) Greenpeace Taiwan (GPT) released a report on Taiwan’s

fisheries on Thursday, suspecting the Fisheries Agency’s willingness and capability to punish illegal shark finning and claiming rampant labor and human rights abuses on its fishing boats.

Greenpeace East Asia uncovered 16 illegal cases of shark finning in three ports in Yilan, Pingtung and Kaohsiung in a three-month investigation in the second half of 2015, but the Fisheries Agency (FA) only found 18 illegal cases in the entirety of 2015, GPT Ocean Campaigner Yen Ning (顏寧) said in Chinese that day.

She also said Greenpeace investigators did not see any Coast Guard or FA officers on the scene when they found the 16 cases from August-October 2015.

In response to Yen’s claim, Deputy Director Huang Hung-yen (黃鴻燕) of the Fisheries Agency told reporters on the phone that the agency has more than 100 employees monitoring illegal shark finning.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: April 14, 2016

The government voiced April 13 a strong protest over the detention and forcible

deportation of Republic of China (Taiwan) nationals to mainland China by the Kenyan police, describing the actions as serious human rights violation that have hurt the feelings of the people of Taiwan and severely affected cross-strait relations.

The incident occurred following the acquittal of 23 ROC nationals by a Kenyan district court on telecoms fraud charges. The group, ordered to leave the West African country in 21 days, was detained for 24 hours after attempting to collect their passports at Kilimani police station near the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

Eight of the 23 were deported April 8 to mainland China. The remaining 15, along with 22 other ROC nationals involved in a separate telecoms fraud case, were deported after police used tear gas to force them out of the station. “These measures are against the will of the 45 ROC nationals and we demand a reasonable explanation from the Kenyan government,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

President Ma Ying-jeou called on Beijing to return the ROC nationals to Taiwan and make sure forcible deportations to mainland China never take place again. This position is shared by President-elect Tsai Ing-wen, who said Taiwan’s jurisdiction should be respected.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 15, 2016
By: NY Times News Service

The Chinese government on Wednesday announced that a group of Taiwanese

who were deported to China from Kenya would be prosecuted on charges of telecoms fraud, despite having been acquitted of the same charges by a Kenyan court this month.

The move escalated a diplomatic battle that has outraged officials who see the deportation of Taiwanese to China as an extra judicial abduction.

The case has also raised international legal questions and involved Kenya in the geopolitical maneuvering between Taiwan and China.

The Taiwanese arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, hooded and handcuffed, after being forced onto a plane by Kenyan police.

Taiwanese lawmakers have accused the Kenyan government of violating international law and its own laws to placate China.     [FULL  STORY]