Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/05/06
By: Chen Wei-ting and Elaine Hou

Taipei, May 6 (CNA) Flight attendants of Taiwanese airline Far Eastern Air Transport (遠東航空) jointly “took a day off” on Saturday, in a protest against the carrier’s laying off of 17 employees and the delayed payment of flight attendants’ subsidies, disrupting the company’s flights to China and Taiwan’s outlying island of Penghu.

As of Saturday noon, 21 of 46 flight attendants who should be at work were absent, leading to the cancellation of two flights between northern Taiwan’s Taoyuan City and Harbin City in northeastern China, and two other flights between southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung and its outlying island Penghu scheduled for that day, the airline said.

The flight attendants “took the day off” to protest against Far Eastern Air’s laying off of 17 flight attendants recently, delayed payments of subsidies to its flight attendants and unilaterally making adjustments to the employees’ salary scale.  [FULL  STORY]

Introducing new counterfeit-proof currency would cost nation NT$50 billion, says Perng Fai-nan

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/03
By: Judy Lin,Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taipei (Taiwan News)—Revamping New Taiwan Dollar bills, one of the world’s least counterfeited

currencies, would take six years and cost taxpayers NT$50 billion (US$1.61 billion), said Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南), the central bank’s governor.

Perng was responding to ruling Democratic Progressing Party (DPP) lawmakers Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬), and Kuomintang legislators Lin Te-fu (林德福) and Luo Ming-tsai (羅明才), inquiry of whether the bank intended to revamp the nation’s currency at a meeting Thursday.

“There is no urgency to revise the currency design, at least the possibility will be slim during my term as central bank governor,” said Perng.

The New Taiwan Dollar (NTD) design has excellent counterfeit-proof functions and designs, making it one of the least counterfeited currencies in the world.   [FULL  STORY]

The company targets to sell 10,000 scooters in 2017

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/02/27
By: Matthew Lubin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

China Motor Corporation (中華汽車) plans to cooperate with county governments to promote low-carbon

vehicles, according to a company press release. The company has begun cooperation with Tainan for its e-moving electric scooters.

The company launched its “one mile of low carbon, one mile of happiness” (一哩低碳一里幸福) campaign in Houbi District on Feb. 22. It will provide 21 community leaders with free e-moving scooters and access to charging stations, with the district becoming the first demonstration area in Tainan with the charging stations. It has even set up a rental station at Wumile Restaurant (無米樂米食館).

As the district relies heavily on rice production, the use of zero-emission vehicles would improve the quality of the local agricultural industry. Eighty percent of the residents are engaged in rice production and related industries.

China Motor has been diversifying its marketing strategy in recent years and entered the tourism market with a push to partner with rental agencies in Penghu, Matsu and Green Island, as well as other tourist destinations in Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Ruth Giordano moved to Taipei at the age of 54 in 2009. She had never lived in Asia and did not speak Chinese. Without a job and local friends, she felt lost and worried about her life as a senior immigrant. “My job was my everything. I didn’t know what I could do in Taiwan.”

The News Lens
Date: 2017/02/25
By: Beyonder Times

At the end of 2013, a seven-minute commercial film “A Memory to Remember” by

Kingston Technology Corporation went viral with over 1 million views on YouTube. This heartwarming short film told the story of an old woman who regularly went to a subway station to listen to her late husband’s announcement recording of “Mind the gap.” The lead actress is actually a resident of Taipei, and also the producer and director of Red Room Radio Redux (R4)(*1).

She is Ruth Giordano, who moved from New York to Taipei at the age of 54 with her husband in 2009. She had never lived in Asia and did not speak Chinese. Without a job and local friends, she felt lost and worried about her life as a senior immigrant. “My job was my everything. I didn’t know what I could do in Taiwan.”   [FULL  STORY]

It would be a big pity if you leave the Taroko National Park without hiking on these two trails.

Taiwan News
Date: 2016/12/06
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

If the Taroko National Park is the crown of Taiwan’s tourist attractions, the Zhuilu Old Road and the

Baiyang Trail (Water Curtain Cave) are the two most treasurable rubies on the crown. So be sure to include these two trails in your itinerary if you are visiting the national park to make the trip most complete and memorable.

It would be a big pity if you leave the Taroko National Park without hiking on these two trails. The article will focus on application for entry to the Zhuilu Old Road as well as brief description of the two trails.

The Zhuilu Old Road was part of the old Cross- Hehuan Mt. Road during the Japanese Occupation and a narrow pass of 500 meters from the 2.6k mark to the 3.1k mark was chiseled out across the upper face of the tall Zhuilu Precipice, which is made of marble rocks.

Along the trail, there are a few tribal ruins and Japanese rule monuments of historical and cultural values.    [FULL  STORY]

NOT FAR ENOUGHA 20-year expiry on the statute of limitations in murder cases is too short, lawmakers said, adding that families live without justice while perpetrators are free

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 02, 2016
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Members of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday announced that they would push

for a major amendment to the Criminal Code to remove the statute of limitations on murder cases and fugitives of major economic crimes, to close legal loopholes so victims and their families can have hope that justice will be done.

DPP legislators Wang Ding-yu (王定宇), Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) and Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) said they would introduce the bill in the coming legislative session.

“The judiciary should not close unsolved cases after 20 years, as the perpetrators are still at large and victims are denied justice. We have seen too many unsolved murder cases. Our society cannot accept this and we will strive to rectify such injustice,” Wang said yesterday at a news conference in Taipei.

The legislators’ endeavor came after calls for the judiciary to renew investigations into several high-profile cases which could be terminated by prosecutors as their 20-year statute of limitations runs out in weeks.    [FULL  STORY]