RT.com
Date: 21 Feb, 2016

An enterprising young food stall operator learned a hard lesson last week

when his penis-shaped waffle sausages got shafted at a local market, according to The Star newspaper.

Inspired by a popular penis waffle trend in Taiwan’s Shilin market, the Malaysian trader at Junker Walk market in the state of Melacca won’t be able to sell his goods after local community members got the willies and felt it clashed with the “family-friendly” vibe.

His case went all the way to the city council.

The penis waffles were found to violate the traders business license terms which permitted him to sell only souvenirs and small snacks. Depends on your definition of small, I guess.

Now he’s stuck with a custom-shaped waffle maker and no place to sell them. At least he’ll always have a reliable customer in Tyrone Biggums.     [FULL

  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/21
By: C.P. Liu and Flor Wang

Taipei, Feb. 21 (CNA) A Finnish man has been placed by police in a shelter in

Taipei’s Wenshan District after he was found sleeping at a bus station in Neihu.

The 40-year-old man from Finland was taken in late Saturday by police who acted on a tipoff reporting that a suspicious foreign national was sleeping in cold conditions at a bus station on Zhishan Road Section 3 in Neihu District.

The man told police that he arrived in Taiwan for tourism on Jan. 26 and was scheduled to fly back to Finland on March. 30. But he said he had used up his money and was wandering the streets.

After being taken back to the Xishan Police Station, the penniless and hungry Finnish man took a shower and was treated to a bowl of warm instant noodles.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-21
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The position of Taiwan’s military not to develop nuclear weapons stays unchanged, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said on Sunday in response to a report by The Diplomat on the previous day that said declassified documents show the U.S. stifled Taiwan’s efforts to acquire nuclear technology with possible weapons applications 40 years ago.

The United States government has, for the first time, declassified in full documents that shed insight into Taiwan’s work on nuclear technology with possible weapons applications in the late 1970s, the online magazine report says.

“The newly declassified documents reveal that in September 1976, a few months before Carter entered office, Taiwan and the United States came to an agreement that sought to shut down Taipei’s nuclear program for good. Chiang Ching-kuo, the Taiwanese president at the time, pledged that Taiwan would not develop facilities to reprocess spent fuel. This came after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had discovered Taiwanese attempts to produce weapons-grade plutonium and enrich uranium,” the report says.

The Republic of China (Taiwan) has clearly declared that the country’s military will abide by international conventions and government policies by abstaining from producing, developing, acquiring, stocking and using nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and the position will remain unchanged, the MND said in a press release Sunday.   [SOURCE]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/21
By: Christie Chen and Yang Ssu-jui

Taipei, Feb. 21 (CNA) The Gro Brundtland Week of Women in Sustainable Development kicked off Sunday in Tainan with the aim of promoting public interest in the area of sustainable development and honoring female researchers from developing countries and Taiwan.

Gro Brundtland Week, a series of talks and panel discussions focusing on sustainable development, will be held at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Tainan on Sunday and Monday, National Dong Hwa University in Hualien on Feb. 24, Academia Sinica in Taipei on Feb. 25, and the Tang Prize Foundation in Taipei on Feb. 26.

Many female scientists have been invited to the series of events, with the hope that they will form an alliance to promote female participation in sustainable development research, NCKU President Su Huey-jen (蘇慧貞) said.     [FULL  STORY]

UNITY:The KMT should stand united regardless of which candidate wins the by-election, former party chairperson Eric Chu said, adding that the party could not afford divisions

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 22, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter

Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫)

yesterday shrugged off pressure from KMT members to endorse a party chairperson hopeful.

Chu and former Council of Labor Affairs minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) attended a gathering at the KMT’s local branch in Miaoli County yesterday morning to thank party members and supporters for their efforts during last month’s elections.

In addition to about 200 party members and supporters, the event was attended by two party chairperson hopefuls, acting KMT chairperson Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠) and former legislative speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱).

As Hung had not arrived when the event began, the KMT’s Miaoli County Commissioner Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) asked Chu whether his appearance with Huang at the gathering insinuated his endorsement of her.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-20
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Legislative Yuan should consider setting up a

special committee to look into the issue of illegal party assets, senior Democratic Progressive Party member Chiu Tai-san said Saturday.

The assets held by the Kuomintang, often described as the world’s wealthiest political party, have emerged as one of the priority topics for the newly elected Legislature, where the DPP holds a majority.

Most proposals present at the Legislative Yuan want the Executive Yuan or Cabinet to form a special investigative commission to deal with the subject. However, this way the subject could be influenced by the ruling party, said Chiu, currently vice mayor of Taoyuan City, but sometimes tipped as a potential justice minister. If the Legislative Yuan were in charge, all political parties would be involved in the process, according to Chiu.

DPP lawmaker Wellington Koo agreed with the suggestion, though he said that how the committee conducted its investigation would be influenced by the Legislative Yuan’s right to investigate, a separate proposal which also still waits to be resolved.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/02/20
By: Huang Chiao-wen and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Feb. 20 (CNA) Approximately 86 percent of people in Taiwan are

satisfied with the joint rescue efforts conducted by the central and local governments in the aftermath of the Feb. 6 earthquake in southern Taiwan, according to the results of a survey released by the National Development Council (NDC) Saturday.

Also, 93 percent of people expressed satisfaction with the military’s active involvement in the rescue efforts.

On the government’s plan to provide relief aid and subsidies to people affected by the earthquake, 92 percent of people voiced support for the policy.

In addition, 87 percent of people said the government should subsidize the cost of safety inspections for old residential buildings.     [FULL STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-02-19
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Former Cabinet Secretary-General Chen Ching-chun will take over as Taipei City’s third vice mayor on February 22, reports said Friday.

The appointment became necessary after the previous deputy, Chou Li-fang, resigned last month after holding the position less than one year. Chou, the only woman amid three vice mayors, had kept a low profile despite being in charge of issues related to the 2017 Summer Universiade.

Earlier in the week, Chen already met with Mayor Ko Wen-je and with other top city government officials, confirming reports of his planned appointment. On Friday, a city personnel official said Chen would start working next Monday, February 22.

Because of his background as a Democratic Progressive Party veteran, his appointment was expected to facilitate relations between the capital and the incoming administration of President-elect Tsai Ing-wen, who will be sworn in on May 20.     [FULL  STORY]