Page Two

Daily increase in dengue cases hits new high in Kaohsiung

Want China Times
Date: 2015-10-29
By: CNA

Kaohsiung reported the highest number of new dengue fever infections in a single day

Local government workers in Kaoshiung working to stop the spread of dengue fever, Oct. 5. (File photo/Lin Ya-hui)

Tuesday since dengue fever season began in May as the outbreak continues to intensify in the southern Taiwan city, the national Centers for Disease Control said Wednesday.

Kaohsiung had 248 new cases on Tuesday, while 110 new cases were reported in neighboring Tainan, where the epidemic shows signs of abating after having been concentrated there since late August, the agency said.

Nationwide, the number of dengue fever patients reached 28,101 after an increase of 365 cases on Tuesday, CDC data showed. [FULL STORY]

Taiwan and US break up global escort service ring

FALLEN ROYALTY?The ring had allegedly included ‘the Sunflower Queen’ and sent models on trips abroad with businessmen who paid between NT$500,000 and NT$2m

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 29, 2015
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Taiwanese law enforcement agencies working in concert with their US counterparts have

A photograph taken from Johanne Liou’s Facebook page shows her on Oct. 20 last year.

busted an international prostitution ring, which allegedly had a female proprietor surnamed Tai (戴) heading up the operation to supply escorts, and several suspects were taken in for questioning by prosecutors yesterday.

Judicial officials said the prostitution ring allegedly contravened international laws against human trafficking, because an investigation revealed that some of the call girls flew to China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, the US and Australia to provide sexual services or as “business trip companions,” mostly for businessmen and other wealthy clientele.

Three women with alleged involvement were summoned for questioning at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Tuesday night, including the female proprietor, Tai Chun-yi (戴君儀), model agency manager Chung Yi-tzu (鍾宜姿) and Johanne Liou (劉喬安), whose good looks led the local media to dub her the “Sunflower Queen” during her participation in the Sunflower movement last year. [FULL STORY]

Drone crashes into Taipei 101

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/29
By: Lin Meng-ju and Lee Mei-yu

Taipei, Oct. 29 (CNA) An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crashed into the Taipei 101 skyscraper Tuesday but it was not yet known whether it caused any damage to the iconic building, according to Taipei 101 spokesman Michael Liu (劉家豪).

Liu said a full investigation into the latest incident will be carried out and may determine where exactly the UAV hit the building.

Debris from the UAV was found not just on the ground outside the building, but also on the balcony of the 82nd floor, indicating that the drone had been flying quite high.

Tuesday’s drone crash was the latest in a series of similar incidents in the Taipei 101 area since mid-June. No injuries have been reported as a result of the crashes. [FULL STORY]

SEF app aims to make cross-strait exchanges easier

Want China Times
Date: 2015-10-29
By: Xinhua

The lives of people on either side of the Taiwan Strait has become much easier, thanks to

The app interface on a smartphone, Oct. 28. (Photo/Xinhua)

a mobile phone app that was formally released Wednesday.

The app, which has been in testing since May, provides information and documents on the logistics of doing business, studying, getting married and adopting children on the other side of the strait. It was the brainchild of the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and runs on Android and iOS devices.

Tian Chunmiao, whose husband is from Taiwan, told Xinhua that when she used to call the SEF hotline it was often busy and she would just be left hanging on the telephone. “The app makes everything much more convenient, especially with paperwork. Gone are the days when I would spend hours on the telephone to the SEF to ask about the status of our legal documents,” she said.

The SEF handles cross-strait affairs and works closely with the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) on cross-strait agreements. [FULL STORY]

Executive Yuan interfered with operaions, NCC says

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 29, 2015
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

National Communications Commission (NCC) Chairman Howard Shyr (石世豪) yesterday accused the Executive Yuan of meddling in the commission’s case involving Global Mobile (全球一動), adding that the “Executive Yuan has enough wisdom to fix the mistakes it made.”

The WiMAX service operator filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan after the commission nullified a July ruling allowing the telecom to upgrade its system on the grounds that it failed to fulfill three conditions the NCC issued.

However, the Executive Yuan’s appeals committee last week sided with Global Mobile, ruling to void the three conditions attached to the NCC ruling.

Shyr said that the committee’s decision showed that the Executive Yuan has interfered in the operations of the commission, which is an independent government agency.

He also accused Global Mobile of trying to influence the committee by meeting with its members. [FULL STORY]

China says Taiwan election putting off tourists from visiting

Reuters
October 28, 2015

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese tourists are being put off visiting Taiwan because of the “highly politicized” atmosphere there ahead of January’s elections, a government spokesman said on Wednesday, but would not say if Beijing was telling people not to go.

Taiwan elections are always sensitive in Communist Party-ruled China, worried that the democratic winds from across the Taiwan Strait could cause people to wonder why their own government won’t allow free polls.

China has made little secret of its dislike for the election frontrunner, Tsai Ing-wen from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party which has traditionally favored an independent Taiwan.

China considers self-ruled Taiwan, where defeated Nationalist forces fled in 1949 after losing to the Communists in the Chinese civil war, an integral part of its territory, and would consider a declaration of independence tantamount to war.

Chinese tourists have flocked to Taiwan since landmark economic deals were signed in 2008 as part of a thaw in ties, but Taiwan media has reported China will slash the number of tourists it allows to visit in the run-up to the election. [FULL STORY]

MOTC optimistic about Airport MRT’s scheduled launch

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-10-28
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) Wu Meng-feng disclosed

MOTC optimistic about March opening. Central News Agency

Wednesday that it had already inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Taoyuan City government concerning the scheduled launch of the rapid transit line connecting Taiwan’s main airport and the greater Taipei area.

“We haven’t given up on our goal,” Wu said, expressing hope that mechanical problems on the airport MRT could be solved before its due launch in March 2016.

Initially set to start operations by the end of this year, the project has been experiencing system instability since March, when related system stability work should have already been completed.

On Tuesday, Taoyuan Metro Corp. President Ho Nuan-hsuen responded to reporters that he has 50 percent faith in the scheduled launch although the rail’s stability has been improving recently. [FULL STORY]

Largest LGBT conference in Asia opens in Taipei

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/28
By Christie Chen

Taipei, Oct. 28 (CNA) The largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) conference in Asia opened Wednesday in Taipei, with local activists eager to learn from the experiences of other participants in combating discrimination and pursuing equal rights.

The 6th ILGA-Asia Regional Conference has drawn 300 activists from over 30 countries, and Wayne Lin (維尼), chairperson of the event’s organizer, the Taiwan Tongzhi (LGBT) Hotline Association, sees it as a chance for Taiwan to share its experiences with the world and learn how LGBT issues are dealt with in other countries.

“By learning from each other, we hope to bring our cooperation one step further and strengthen Taiwan’s LGBT activism,” Lin said at the opening of the three-day conference — being held in Taiwan for the first time — at the Chientan Overseas Youth Activity Center. [FULL STORY]

Taiwan says rust on Apaches being investigated; training unaffected

Want China Times
Date: 2015-10-28
By: CNA

The Republic of China Army said Tuesday it is looking into the cause of the rust that has

Huang Kuo-min, right, reports at the Ministry of National Defense in Taipei, Oct. 27. (Photo/CNA)

appeared on the tail rotor gearbox of AH-64E Apache attack helicopters purchased from the United States, but stressed that training on the chopper has not been affected.

Major General Huang Kuo-min, commander of the Army Aviation Special Forces Command, confirmed the problem with the Apaches at a news briefing and said people with the US company that built the helicopters have formed a task force to study the problem and provide advice.

The rust problem has not affected the military’s training program for the helicopters, the most advanced in Taiwan’s fleet.

“We will formally commission the Apaches into service on schedule in early 2017,” Huang said. [FULL STORY]

TaiMed case reveals Tsai’s ‘flaws’: KMT

MORAL FAILINGS?The KMT said the only reason DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen was found not to have broken the law was because of loopholes in revolving-door laws

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 29, 2015
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus yesterday said there is still the

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Yeh Yi-jin, left, Chen Ting-fei, center, and Chen Chi-mai, right, attend a news conference in Taipei yesterday calling on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu to apologize over allegations of corruption made against DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen by former Council for Economic Planning and Development minister Christina Liu. Photo: CNA

question of “political and moral flaws” in the case involving Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) investment in a biotechnology company, “despite the absence of a judicial ruling.”

The Taipei District Court on Tuesday ruled former Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) to pay Tsai NT$2 million (US$61,189) for defamation over her accusation that Tsai violated revolving-door laws by investing in biotechnology company TaiMed Biologics Inc (中裕新藥).

The case against Tsai was closed in August 2012 after no irregularities were found.

KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) dismissed the DPP’s demand that the KMT apologize for its accusations about Tsai. [FULL STORY]

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