Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/06
By: Yu Kai-hsiang and Maubo Chang

Taipei, May 6 (CNA) Taipei will not recruit any new elementary school teachers

this year, the city’s Education Department said Wednesday, citing a decreasing number of students.

Chen Hsun-ho, secretary-general of the department, said the number of students in the city’s elementary schools will decrease by 3,000 in the 2015 academic year, which begins Aug. 1.

That means there will be 100 fewer classes than in the last academic year, therefore, the city will not recruit any new teachers through the open screening process this year, Chen said.

However, schools that require additional teaching staff may independently hire teachers in an acting position, he said.     [FULL  STORY]

TWO ‘ONE CHINAS’:KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng said Eric Chu had met the DPP’s challenge that he bring up the name of the Republic of China during his trip to China

Taipei Times
Date: May 06, 2015
By: Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday called on the

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to “recognize” KMT Chairman Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) mention of the Republic of China (ROC) during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Monday.

While the KMT sees the party’s interactions with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), of which Xi is general secretary, and the Chu-Xi meeting as a “success,” the DPP has been lashing out at the KMT, accusing it of overreaching its authority in cross-strait relations, which should be government-to-government.

The KMT caucus asked the DPP to stop villifying and “coloring the KMT red.”     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/05
By: Chou Yi-ling and S.C. Chang

Taipei, May 5 (CNA) Taiwan would like to see its businesspeople invest in China’s “one belt, one road” strategy as long as China does not attach any political conditions to their participation, a leading China policy official said Tuesday.

Hsia Li-yan, head of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), made the remarks during an interview in which he was asked to comment on media reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping had promised to give Taiwanese investors “priority” chances to take part in his grand economic strategy.

Xi offered this sign of goodwill to Eric Chu, chairman of Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang, who returned from a visit to Shanghai and Beijing earlier that day.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/05/05
By: Christie Chen

Taipei, May 5 (CNA) A new hub was established in Taipei Tuesday to form closer ties between Taiwan’s social enterprises and the disabled.

The Taipei SE (Social Enterprise) DBS Hub (臺北社企 星展小棧) will serve as a place for dialogue, said Roy Chang (張英樹), CEO of the Victory Potential Development Centre for the Disabled, one of operators of the hub.

The hub is located on the third floor of the Taipei SE Square, a government-constructed building that houses four social enterprises that work to improve the employment prospects for disabled people.

At a low cost, people from existing social enterprises or individuals who wish to set up one can rent office space and spaces to hold events at the new hub. They can also enjoy resources and equipment provided at the hub, which was renovated by DBS Bank Taiwan, Chang said.     [FULL  STORY]

Want China Times
Date: 2015-05-05
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

A former home room teacher in Taiwan awarded scholarships set up by his old

class of reformed students at a school in Chiayi county to their underclassmen Monday, the 31st straight year the scholarships have been given out of gratitude to their teacher.

The 88-year-old retired teacher, Chen Miao, born in the central Chinese province of Henan, gave away scholarships to 15 students at National Chia-Yi Senior Commercial Vocational School in the company of members of a class he taught some 45 years ago.

The scholarship was set up by a class of 51 male students considered by many then as “intractably ill-behaved” to express gratitude to Chen’s devotion, which was said to have put many of them back on the right track.

Chen was the first military trainer to be assigned as the home room teacher for the class who graduated in 1970, replacing two others who had difficulty disciplining the students.     [FULL  STORY]

CIDRAP News
Date: May 04, 2015
By: Robert Roos, News Editor

Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu has resurfaced in Turkey for the first time

since 2008, while the H5N8 virus has hit five more poultry farms in Taiwan, according to reports filed with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

In Turkey, H5N1 killed a backyard flock of 27 poultry in the north-central province of Kastamonu, said a report submitted by Turkish officials today. They didn’t specify what bird species were in the flock.

In response to the outbreak, officials destroyed 92 backyard poultry within 3 kilometers of the site and cleaned and disinfected the facilities where they were kept, the report said. Monitoring is ongoing within 10 kilometers of the outbreak.     [FULL  STORY]