Page Two

Duty-free shop staff may have contracted measles from tourists: CDC

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/19
By: Chen Ching-fang and Scully Hsiao

Taipei, May 19 (CNA) The Centers for Disease Control said Tuesday it suspects 2015051900301that four employees at a duty-free shop in Taipei who were diagnosed with measles last week might have contracted the disease from tourists.

Luo I-chun, a doctor with the CDC, said the four employees all displayed symptoms of cough, fever and rashes on the skin last week. None of the three females and one male had traveled overseas before the onset of the disease, Luo said.

Luo said he therefore suspected that the four patients may have contracted the disease from tourists.

Fortunately, none of the 1,223 people known to have come into contact with the four patients, including their families and coworkers as well as the medical personnel that treated them, have displayed measles symptoms, the CDC said, adding it will keep monitoring them until June 3.     [FULL  STORY]

‘Brave Wind’ among local arms headed to Paris show

Taipei Times
Date: May 20, 2015
By: Jason Pan and Lo Tien-pin  /  Staff reporters

The locally developed Hsiung Feng III “Brave Wind” surface-to-surface anti-ship missile is to be put on display abroad for the first time at the International Paris Air Show next month, along with other advanced weaponry and technical equipment produced by the nation’s defense and aerospace industries.

The Taiwan Aerospace Industry Association (TAIA) on Monday said that the international community is interested in the Hsiung Feng III, which has been billed an “aircraft-carrier killer.”

The Tien Kung III “Sky Bow” surface-to-air missile, together with more than 20 other Taiwanese military items and weapons are to be on display at the show, which is to run from June 15 to June 21.

The Aerospace Industrial Development Corp, Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) and Precision Engineering Products are to exhibit at the show.     [FULL  STORY]

Pop diva Jolin Tsai’s album leads Golden Melody nominees

Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-19
By: CNA

Taiwanese pop diva Jolin Tsai’s album Play leads this year’s Golden Melody

Jolin Tsai. (Photo courtesy of Warner Music)

Jolin Tsai. (Photo courtesy of Warner Music)

nominees with nine nominations, including Best Mandarin Album, the jury announced Monday.

The album also garnered nods in the categories of Best Song of the Year, Best Music Video, Best Musical Arranger, Best Single Producer, Best Album Packaging and the newly established category of Best Album Recording.

Despite the strong performance of her album, however, Tsai did not gain a nod in the category of Best Mandarin Female Singer, which will be contended by Taiwan’s A-mei, Lala Hsu, Waa Wei, A-lin and Hong Kong’s Karen Mok, according to the list of nominees released by the Ministry of Culture’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development.

In the Best Mandarin Male Singer category, Hong Kong’s Jacky Cheung will be pitted against fellow Hong Kongers Eason Chan and Khalil Fong, and Taiwan’s William Wei and Yang Pei-an.

The six nominees for Best Mandarin Album are Play, Lala Hsu’s Missing, Jacky Cheung’s Wake Up Dreaming, Eason Chan’s Rice & Shine, Karen Mok’s Departures and Aiyo, Not Bad by Taiwan’s Jay Chou.     [FULL  STORY]

Looking for Taiwan

”Made in Taiwan” summarises what many Kiwis know about the subtropical island state which calls itself the Republic of China. Former Otago Daily Times reporter Joe Dodgshun got a flying taste of its rich and evolving culture in the capital, Taipei, on a stopover enroute from New Zealand.

Otago Daily Times
19 May 2015

As Nele and I entered the underground convenience store, we gagged on a Clipboard01mysterious scent, both savoury and sickly-sweet.

We quickly traced this odour to an open cabinet where small vats bubbled merrily away, filled with black eggs, yam, sausages and a cornucopia of unnaturally shaped objects of indeterminable origin.

After a long train journey, a nap on the benches of Frankfurt International Airport and the 13-hour flight to Taipei, this 6am assault on the nostrils was too much. Fleeing the 7/11, the only food store open so early, we jumped on to the first bus headed downtown.

From behind the frilly lace curtains of the airport express, we watched Taiwan awaken, while drinking odd but refreshing apple milk.

The bus threaded its way along the top of a tightly woven array of highways, three levels high, providing an outlook over the rapidly brightening landscape of apartment buildings and futuristic industrial complexes which fill the hollows between forested mountains of the country formerly known as Formosa.

Instead of being stranded in airport purgatory during our 18-hour stopover on the way to New Zealand, we were one hour later surrounded by rush hour traffic in the national capital, Taipei City.     [FULL  STORY]

Ma rejects Dome graft allegations

Taipei Times
Date: May 19, 2015
By: Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

Taipei City Government allegations of illegal profiteering are “cooked-up charges” based on a “strained interpretation” of the facts, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said at a news conference yesterday.

Ma questioned the methods of the city’s Clean Government Committee, which has said that Ma, while Taipei mayor, agreed to Taipei Dome contract terms allowing Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設) to rake in illegal profits.

“I feel [the committee] first came to a conclusion and then looked for evidence,” Ma said, adding that people related to the case would demonstrate that there had been no illegal activity in each instance cited by the city.     [FULL  STORY]

Hung Hsiu-chu stands out — for actually wanting KMT nomination

Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-18
By: Lin Su-hui and Staff Reporter

Hung Hsiu-chu, deputy speaker of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, has completed

A typically strident Hung Hsiu-chu speaks in New Taipei, May 16. (Photo/Yao Chih-ping)

A typically strident Hung Hsiu-chu speaks in New Taipei, May 16. (Photo/Yao Chih-ping)

the procedures to register for the presidential primary of the ruling Kuomintang, reports our Chinese-language sister paper China Times.

Hung is seen as one of the most outspoken figures within the KMT and her remarks thus far have indicated a doubling-down on the policies of the Ma Ying-jeou administration that have proven increasingly unpopular with the public over the last couple of years. Though she is thus widely seen as unelectable come Jan. 16 next year, Hung did manage to submit over 63,000 petition signatures to support her bid, more than four times the threshold of 15,000 signatures to contest the primary.

The deputy speaker said she initially announced her bid as a way to break the ice for more likely contenders than herself, but with no genuine KMT heavyweights putting themselves forward, she has proceeded to gather signatures for her own candidacy, shooting two promotional videos, opening a Facebook fan page, and launching her own website called “THE WAY.”     [FULL  STORY]

Second KMT presidential hopeful registers in primary

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/18
By Claudia Liu and Lilian Wu

Taipei, May 18 (CNA) Taiwan’s former Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良)

Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良)

Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良)

registered with the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) to be a candidate in the party’s presidential primary on Monday, the last day of registration.

Following the footsteps of Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) who registered with the KMT on Sunday with signatures from more than 60,000 KMT members who support her, Yaung presented more than 30,000 KMT members’ signatures, well over the threshold of the 15,000 required.

Yaung also posted the stipulated fee of NT$7 million (US$229,600) for competing in the primary.     [FULL  STORY]

Cannes: Taiwanese Anger Over Director Prompts Program Edit

The Hollywood Reporter
Date: 5/15/2015
By Clifford Coonan

Cannes film festival organizers have updated the official program after Taiwan

AP Images

AP Images

complained about the description of Hou Hsiao-hsien, whose movie The Assassin is in competition, as being from Mainland China.

Officials in self-ruled Taiwan, a bitter rival of mainland China, were angry about the description of Hou as being of “Chinese nationality” in the festival’s official program and the absence of the Taiwanese flag at the festival.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Anna Kao said that the country’s representative in France had complained to organizers, who updated the entry on its website to say that Hou was from Taiwan and it had also promised to fly the Taiwanese flag outside the Palais.     [FULL  STORY]

Air conditioner at nuclear power plant catches fire

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/16
By: Huang Chiao-wen and Y.F. Low

Taipei, May 16 (CNA) An air-conditioning unit in a seawater pump house at the first nuclear power plant in New Taipei caught fire Saturday but the blaze was put out immediately, Taiwan Power Company said.

The accident, which occurred at 3:16 p.m., did not cause any nuclear safety concerns or affect power generation at the plant in the city’s Shimen District, said Lin Te-fu (林德福), a spokesman for the state-owned power company.

He said the seawater pump house is an isolated room at the seaside, 1-2 kilometers away from the nuclear reactors.

Soon after the fire broke out, a worker put it out with an extinguisher, unplugged the air conditioning unit and called the plant’s fire fighters, Lin said.

He said further investigation will be required to determine the cause of the fire.

Tsai says KMT care act lacks funding sources

Taipei Times
Date: May 17, 2015
By: Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff reporter

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday expressed regrets over the passing of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) version of the Long-term Care Services Act (長期照顧服務法), which she said fails to provide a stable source of funding, and might evolve into a superficial and empty law.

“The passing yesterday [Friday] of the Long-term Care Services Act at the legislature should have been something to celebrate. However, since the KMT did not stipulate a source of funding for the act, and also rejected a DPP proposal to create tax revenues from inheritance and gifts, as well as real-estate sales, for policy funding, this law will not provide any change for families,” Tsai said.

“As civic groups said, the Long-term Care Services Act adopted by the KMT caucus is one that is short of funding, superficial, and irresponsible. This is very regrettable,” Tsai wrote on Facebook.     [FULL  STORY]